My Hero Academia - The Assassination of All Might
by jwootan02
Summary: Kaiya Shigaraki only knows a life of abusively brutal training - and collecting quirks alongside her father, All for One, with their thieving quirks - and it's finally time for that training to come to use as she accomplishes her father's goal: to kill All Might. But, UA won't let her succeed without first teaching her the true meaning of power, love and what it means to be a hero.
1. Chapter 1

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**Summary: **Kaiya Shigaraki inherited a perfected version of All for One from her father who dedicates himself to her extensive, relentless training. After meeting All Might on the street at age three, she holds out hope that he will be the one to finally save her from the unending abuse from her father. But as the years go by, that hope fades away. Accepting her unavoidable fate, it's finally time for Kaiya to infiltrate UA High School. After all, rumor has it that he's going to be a teacher this year.

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**Prologue:**

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_The rural fish market didn't take notice at first. There was a menial urgency wafting through the stalls of the large merchant-based strip. Men clad in dirty aprons and the stench of dead fish shouted from their booths why their catch of the day was better than their competitors while small vendors pushed their wooden carts through the crowded street that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. The water beyond was still, looming with anticipation as the sky burned - the sun on the edge of its descent. _

_No one bothered with another businessman weaving through the bustle on a simple errand, nor the young daughter at his side. _

_Kaiya Shigaraki led him to her. At eight years old, she could not see over the passerbyers who jostled her in their rush, blind to who she was - who her father was. She had no map, no sense of direction. These steps were her first on these grounds and with each one pushing her toward the ocean, she knew they would be her last in the small port town. _

_The buzzing led them. Kaiya had felt it since she'd turned four - a pulling of her soul toward others, toward their quirks, their power. _

_Seagulls cawed overhead and a soft wind chilled her cheeks as the night beckoned them onward to their task. This would be the first of many, her father had told her. Her boots sunk into the wet mud when she stopped, her quirk calling her toward their target. _

_Kaiya had raised a small finger and pointed for her father._

_The woman had been laughing when she first saw her. A young child on her hip, the woman looked out to the sea where her husband and other children shouted to her from a small fishing boat that rocked playfully in the still waters. The mother squeezed her babe's thick cheek before grabbing its little arm with her fingers and waving out to their family. _

_Her father had taken out the babe first. _

_Kaiya stood at his side as the mother roared in mourning and the ocean rose around her - the massive power breaking apart the ship that held the rest of her family. The sea swelled in her grasp, building beyond every nearby structure that dared to compare, amassing into a wall meant to drown them into a dark, unforgiving eternity. Grief mangled the woman's features, her eyes a stark flame against the might of her water as she watched Kaiya's father with a rage that she knew would devour her, swallowing her in her strength meant for the two of them. _

_But her father had not flinched._

"_Now it is your turn, Kaiya."_

_She finally gave into the burning call in her gut that led them here, letting her quirk loose from her pores like a shot of thin, black lightning that webbed across the expanse between her and the water wielder in an instant. It captured the woman, wrapping around her like a net that tightened and tightened, burying itself in her skin until finally it could slip inside, disappearing from sight completely. _

_Kaiya looked into the eyes of the scorned mother and raised her hand. The woman's wave poured over the coast crashing into her, devouring her into its depths before returning to the ocean. Dusk had slumbered into nightfall and the stillness had returned to the sea as Kaiya looked out over the never ending black water. Her father placed a calloused hand on her shoulder and she clenched a fist before letting it fall, drops of her new quirk dripping to the soft earth like tears. _

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**Chapter One - The Entrance Exam**

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"You'll need this now."

Kaiya's nose twitched at the small plume smoke that crept toward her. "Whatever," she said, swiping the cell phone from Giran's grimy paws. His toothless grin had always rubbed her the wrong way. He straightened his jacket and adjusted his thin glasses before taking another hit of his cigarette and moving to lean against the brick at his back. The alley sheltered them from the bright morning light, crisp with the beginnings of spring.

"You have twenty minutes before orientation." Kurogiri's low voice came seemingly out of nowhere, but his mist remained, hiding deeper in the shadows behind them. "Remember your father's words, girl."

_You must not fail._

Giran flicked his cigarette and kicked off the wall. "Well, goodluck kid." The grungy underground dealer started to reach out a hand toward her, but she shot him a glare and he thought better of it. He turned away without a second look, retreating further into their meeting spot as Kurogiri's presence slowly evaporated into nothing.

And then she was a small girl in a school uniform standing alone in a shadowed alley beside mounds of garbage.

With a huff of a breath, she looked off at the archway at the end of the stone road that was flushed with students. They approached the institution the same way the ants by her boot filed in for a bite of the trash leaking out onto the pavement behind her. Her silken black hair fell behind her shoulders, bouncing against her lower back as she stepped into the light and joined the masses to get a taste of her own.

The buzzing in her chest was incredibly distracting. Pulses shot off from three directions at a time, calling out to her in a cacophony of pricks against her quirk as they all vied for her attention. Most were only nuisances, though a few sharper jabs had her lifting her chin to peer toward its call from beneath her bangs.

She had no way of ever knowing what it was that was trying so hard to summon her, only whether it was worth her time or not.

"Move aside, Deku!" a voice stood out amongst the hum of chatter in the wandering teenagers, but it wasn't the shout that made Kaiya stop midstep. She dipped her chin to cast a look back as a small boy with green hair flinched at the yelling of the larger blonde behind him. The exchange was petty, an irritating blend of anxiety and arrogance.

But their quirks.

Power radiated from the tall one, matching the impact of his ego. It had a deja vu effect on her, the days of her and her father travelling Japan to collect the most impressive quirks pushing her toward the boy. His potential was worth noting, however it was so loud she almost overlooked the trembling wimp before him.

Every quirk offered her some sort of pull, whether it be a whisper or a scream. She could decipher the mundane from the extraordinary without a thought. They called to her, each trying to tempt her - to call her over to them and take their power for herself.

But this one did not pull her toward him.

No, it pushed her back.

The pressure was small, almost unnoticeable had it not been so foreign. Never had she experienced a quirk that attempted to suppress her, keep her at bay. She pulled her gaze down to the steps beneath her, the pressure of her clenched jaw straining. There was a mission at hand. She was here for one reason and one reason only, but this…

She would not be able to let go of this.

The orientation for the U.A. High School entrance exam was brief - and boring. Her short legs crossed easily in her overly firm bus seat and she spent her time waiting for the other applicants to board by braiding her hair over her shoulder, letting the murmuring pulls against her quirk blur into the background where she could finally find some peace.

Her upper lip twisted when a familiar quirk stepped onto the bus. There went her peace. The seats had filled quickly and she'd let her knee spill over into the seat beside her to keep others away. Her father had kept her hidden from the public most of her life, but the few times he'd let her venture out with her brother or their cohorts she'd quickly learned the way she drew attention - another reason she wasn't let out often.

Apparently, she was beautiful.

She'd spent days locked away dreaming of copying a shifter's quirk to change. There was no use for her being anything more than ordinary. Symmetry and pretty features were unnecessary and, honestly, annoying - though she had discovered the fun of the ruse. Why would a grown man with an outstanding quirk be afraid of an adorable little girl?

Her temper grew as the roaring quirk approached her, but she did find solace in the blonde's scowl when he realized there were no other seats but beside her. He sat without an event, completely oblivious to the exchange developing between their quirks.

Kaiya did not freely steal quirks, despite the fact that the original owner was able to keep it. The actual process of making her copy to keep was the most draining part of her power, while the pasting process was significantly less energy consuming. But, she supposed, that was because those she pasted a quirk onto only kept it while she was around them. The moment they left her presence it would be lost to them again as if nothing had ever happened.

No, she had no intentions of making any copies today - or at all during her time at U.A.

She rested her chin in her palm and looked out the lightly tinted window at the groups of students still migrating over to their buses for their respective battle centers. She should have found a way to get recommended in.

This was dull.

By the time they were filing out of the bus, Kaiya wanted to scream. Being that close to a quirk of that magnitude for long made her edgy and she needed to blow off some steam. If she copied it for herself, it would stop but that was not a thought in her mind - not an option.

Her boots crunched on the gravel beneath her as she stepped up to the stadium that held the mock city that was their practical exam. What appeared to be at least a hundred others crowded around and she moved off to the edge, crossing her arms as she watched them smile with each other, chatting idly about how cool this was.

She let out a soft chuckle. Cool?

Present Mic's voice boomed over them, despite him being nowhere to be found.

START!

Kaiya let them all sprint ahead of her while she mentally juggled her three favored quirks within her possession, attempting to decide which would be more fun. The group almost entirely ran straight ahead down the main road that was beginning to burst with faux villains. She stepped through the main gate and looked on either side of her down the curving wall that encased the mock metropolis. Mechanical enemies whirred in and out of the edges of buildings as far as she could see.

Pursing her lips into a grim line, she raised a hand.

Five heartbeats passed and her vision tunneled past her open palm before the ground around her finally began to shake, cracking away in thick webs. The concrete snapped and a geyser broke free from below, the water growing - multiplying with her power until her wave was as tall and thick as the walls of this battle center itself. With a twitch of her hand she sent the tidal wave cascading down the wall's edge, swallowing the holders of her points.

She held onto it. Water soared up from the depths of the earth and she sent it out with a single goal, wrapping it around the entirety of the edge of her playing field. When she heard the crushing force of her wave breaking around the last curve back around her other side, she stopped the flow from her geyser.

Turning toward the oncoming wave, she fell into a familiar stance and held out both hands, ready to catch the full wrath of her stolen power. It barrelled toward her and a pair of grief-stricken eyes flashed through her mind as she pulled on the wave, thinning it out and leading it right back into the hole it came from.

She spent the eight remaining minutes jogging through her path of destruction counting her points and imagining just what high school would be like.

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**Author's Note:**

**So I've seen a Q&A with the characters in the A/N's of a few other fics on here and I thought I would give it a try! So leave questions for the characters in this fic in the reviews and they will all be answered down here in each chapter! I'll start with a clarifying question...**

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**j: Kaiya, what do you mean by "pasting" your quirk?**

**Kaiya: Uh, well, it's like on a computer. I can copy a quirk for myself without taking it from the original owner and then paste it onto someone else an unlimited amount of times without removing it from myself... but I can't paste more than one quirk at a time or give a quirk to someone permanently. So yeah. I mean, I have limits too... right?**


	2. Chapter 2

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**Kaiya - Age Three**

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_Outside was bright. The little girl held up a pale hand to shade her squinting eyes as the heat of summer built a soft sheen of sweat beneath her bangs. Her father held her other hand tightly, her arm aching from his height. _

_She'd heard them talking about her — saying that maybe a field trip would help. _

_She bit her trembling lip as people appeared. There were so many people outside of home. They all walked by with smiles on their faces carrying multicolored bags all with names she didn't recognize on their sides. She she squeezed a fist at her side as she took them in, their shapes and sizes and faces all so different from her dad's or her brother's or kuru or Mr. Doctor. But then her lips parted in awe. _

_There were other kids. Like her. They all walked beside their parents talking and laughing as if this were just an ordinary day. _

_Kaiya liked seeing the kids laugh. She had never seen anyone look happy that way. She'd never seen this many happy people at all._

_Her father told her the different buildings around them were stores. People bought things in them with money from their jobs. She wanted to ask him if he bought things and what his job was, but after yesterday she thought it might be better not to say anything back. _

_A scream sounded behind them and she turned to look, but couldn't see over the waists of the crowd. _

"_My son! My son! I can't find my son!" a woman shouted. Her blonde hair darted in and out as she ran through the dense crowd pushing and shoving, calling out a name over and over. _

_Her father did not stop walking and did not make way for the crying mother when she passed by. Kaiya watched though, following what steps she could see between the bodies of strangers. _

"_DON'T WORRY MA'AM! FOR I AM HERE! WITH YOUR SON!" a warm, booming voice sounded over the crowded street. _

_Kaiya turned to the massive hero and paused at the broad, valiant smile he bore. _

"_All Might!" A chorus of shouts rose amongst them all as the man lifted a little boy up onto his shoulders. _

_He wasn't much older than she was. She watched his cries evolve from panic to relief and finally joy as he clung to All Might's thick neck. Tears streamed down his thick, pink cheeks when he saw his mother running to him through the throng of people and he hiccuped, "Thank you for saving me!" _

"_I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO SAVE THE DAY AND BRING A SMILE TO A CRYING FACE!" he declared to the onlookers as they all beamed up at him with acceptance and pride. She felt something warm in her chest she had never felt before as she marveled at the hero._

_All Might… _

_Kaiya's father yanked her arm and she stumbled forward, skinning her hands and already bruised knees on the warm concrete sidewalk. Two hands lifted her around the middle and before she could hope it was All Might, she was lugged over her father's shoulder. He was so mad. Tears stung her eyes, but she held them back as their outing seemed to be cut short. _

_Her chest felt cold again as her father turned back toward the way they came, but somewhere deep inside she held onto the tiny warmth that All Might had given her._

_If he could save that boy, maybe he could save her too._

_The last thing she saw before they disappeared into an alley was the little boy on All Might's shoulder. _

_Smiling._

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**Chapter Two - First Day of School**

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The first bell hadn't even rang yet and Kaiya was annoyed.

This school was one big vibration against her quirk, all the students poking and prodding her with their powers of varying levels. Of course two of the largest on campus were in her class - both seated behind her and she was sure the most challenging part of this mission would be controlling herself not to turn around and scream at them.

Resting her chin down on her palm, she leaned over her desk and listened to the blonde boy from her entrance exam arguing with a tall, broad boy wearing glasses.

About the blonde's feet on the desk.

Come on, seriously?

Her eyes peeled into the plain white walls at the front of the large square room and she explored the second powerful quirk behind her. Well, quirks, actually. The boy at the back of the row beside hers had two hair colors and two quirks. She wondered if anyone else knew about them yet, though she couldn't say she wasn't a little relieved. She'd really argued with her father over registering multiple quirks on her new - heavily falsified - documentation to get into the school, until they'd finally settled on a compromise so long as she didn't go overboard with the showboating.

But where was the fun in that?

She'd yet to see All Might, though he was definitely teaching here now after her little acceptance package.

Just as she was ready to turn on the bickering boys, something caught the attention of the taller boy. He looked to the doorway where the sheepish green haired boy from the entrance exam orientation walked in and four-eyes charged over.

"I'm from Somei Academy and my name is Tenya Ida!" he declared dutifully to the smaller boy.

"I-uh, I heard you before," the boy stammered, rubbing his forearm with anxious energy. "I'm Izuku Midoriya. Pleased to meet you, Ida."

Izuku Midoriya, huh? Kaiya had never heard of him, but his quirk still stood out amongst the others with its polarizing effect on her own. She leaned back in her seat lazily watching the two interact as the blonde boy behind her grumbled at them.

"You perceived the true nature of the exam," Ida went on emphatically as Kaiya felt a swipe against her hair.

She turned in her chair as the blonde snarled. "Keep your hair off my desk, pip squeak!" His quirk was really starting to rub her the wrong way. It almost felt like a flame at her back, desperately trying to consume her and she knew if she'd just collect it, the blaze would bow for her.

Kaiya dropped an elbow on his desk, pulling herself up above him and picked up the length of her hair with her other hand before dropping it directly in the center of the desk. "I'll do what I want. Keep your big mouth shut and let your strength speak for itself, you joke," she finally snapped as the boy went red in the face, twisting with eagerness to put her in her place.

She reared back and turned to face forward again, fanning her hair out behind her with a flick of her wrist. If only it had relieved any of the tension on her quirk, she thought with a bored expression as their teacher entered the classroom and everyone settled in their seats.

Being around so many peers at the entrance exam was one thing, but now these would be her classmates. She'd never interacted with anyone her own age, she realized with a sudden slice of adrenaline through her chest.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa," the man said emotionlessly from beneath his overgrown bangs. The lanky man dressed in baggy black clothes looked nothing short of disheveled as he addressed the class. "Pleased to meet you all. Now, change into your gym clothes and meet me outside."

He pulled out a blue U.A. jersey and tossed it on his desk before making a quick exit and Kaiya sighed in her seat. The others all burst from the room, running toward the locker rooms and she took note of those that weren't in much of a rush, noting that they were all of a considerable quirk level - including both boys she'd already been monitoring.

She managed to avoid any of the idle chatter from the other girls in the locker room before joining them all on the field out back where Aizawa-Sensei announced the fitness test. Most of the students paled, throwing out their questions and concerns.

Kaiya shifted on her heels restlessly and did her best to tune out their unnecessary outbursts. A test of strength made enough sense, though it was a little boring. There were no other classes outside, even beyond the dirt track and off into the finely manicured grass of the grounds. She looked off toward the dorms and grimaced at her new living situation, though she couldn't say the idea of not having to go home to Tomura wasn't appealing.

Her attention wasn't drawn back to her class until she felt one of the two strongest quirks in class moving. Bakugo. That's the name Aizawa had called as the boy took to the throwing circle, a softball in his hands. She'd expected to see him making a spectacle of himself, but his features were impassive, focused.

"Now try it with your quirk," the sensei said, crossing his arms. "Do whatever you need to, just don't leave the circle."

Bakugo stretched his arms across his chest and eyed the field ahead of him. In one swift chain of motion, he pitched the ball sending it off with a loud, sudden BOOM.

Ah, explosions.

Sensei moved on to explain the rationality of these tests going so far as to expelling the student who performed the weakest while Kaiya watched Bakugo who was still looking out after his pitch. The boy grabbed his throwing wrist before turning back to the class with a grin lit on his features, eagerness and pride oozing from him.

Explosions would be fun, she thought to herself. She didn't really have a quirk that compared, though she could likely combine a few to give off the same effect. His throw hadn't been near his full power, but she understood it would have incinerated the ball and removed his score from the test. Kaiya was still going over possible uses while nibbling her bottom lip when the class started to move.

They lined up for the 50 meter dash and Kaiya watched the quirks perform. Most of the students had minimal understanding of the potential of what their quirk could do for them in just these small exercises and she found herself itching for something a little more confrontational for a workout.

Her turn finally came and she walked to the starting line beside a monstrously large boy with six arms of rippling muscles. She liked him instantly. She'd never seen him speak.

Kurugiri's voice chimed in her mind and she remembered her vow not to stand out and a little of her fire left her. She crouched, sinking her fingers into the thin layer of dirt until she heard the start. She launched herself into a sprint, easily surpassing the larger runner despite his much longer legs, before throwing her body forward into a handspring that tossed her forward and into another and another until she finally catapulted across the finish line.

Kaiya shook the dirt off her hands as Aizawa announced her time: 5.31 seconds.

"Wow, that was amazing!" a voice called out. The redheaded boy waved her over as he stood with two others, their quirks on varying degrees in the moderate range. When she hesitated to approach them, the redhead increased his enthusiastic waving and she dropped her chin and joined them. "You beat the time of a lot of quirks with just athleticism. That's so manly!"

Kaiya tilted her head to the side. "But I'm a girl?"

The group of boys deadpanned before one with black hair clarified, "It just means it's really strong of you."

"Only men can be really strong?" she countered, spreading her stance on the playing field.

"No! No!" the redhead exclaimed, waving his hands in front of him defensively. "It's just an expression!"

Kaiya pursed her lips at them. "I don't like your expression."

"Noted," the boy laughed awkwardly as his friends watched her with wide eyes. "I'm Eijiro Kirishima and apparently I need to be doing whatever work out regimen you're using."

This did make her laugh. "You'd probably regret saying that after trying it." Images of her father actively trying to kill her in an abandoned warehouse he'd set on fire when she was thirteen came to her mind and she imagined the three boys in front of her trying to escape.

"Well, now you've gotta show us!" the dark-haired boy said as the blonde put a hand on his shoulder.

"At least once!"

If the boys wanted her to kill them, she might as well let them die. "Uh, sure."

"Great!" the blonde cheered. "I'm Denki Kaminari."

"And I'm Hanto Sero. It's nice to meet you…" he trailed off gesturing toward her with his hand, but she just stared at it and all three boys watched her, their mouths slowly falling open.

"What?"

"Uh," Kirishima said, "What's your name?"

Kaiya pulled her braid from over her shoulder and twisted it in her fingers. "Kaiya...Ito. You can call me Kaiya."

They responded with identical smiles and light blushes over their cheeks when Aizawa-Sensei called for the next test. Throwing her braid back over her shoulder, she turned toward the gym.

The grip test was boring and her score was average. The tests began to blur together with most of her time spent standing around watching the others who all, more or less, performed as they should have with a few standing out in each event. Kirishima and his friends made an effort to include her in their group and though it was originally irritating, she came to not mind it as long as they didn't bother her while she was paying attention to the others' performances.

Approaching the last events, she'd had little to stand out and guarantee her safety from expulsion. She stood at the edge of the long jump pit and kicked her heel with her boot as Bakugo launched himself across with another explosion. It was almost noon. She placed a hand on her stomach as it rumbled and she frowned.

"Kaiya Ito," Sensei called and she made her way to the starting position. "Whenever you're ready."

She thought of the aid that the others' quirks had given them and decided to make at least one remarkable score. Shuffling through her quirks, she reached for one of the two she'd been given permission to use in school aside from the hydrokinesis from her entrance exam.

Bending her legs, she summoned a patch of earth on the opposite side of the field that rose up like a pedestal before zooming toward her. Her classmate's jaws dropped open as it approached her like a pet and she hopped up onto it with the perfect mechanics of a real standing long jump. The earthen beast retracted, pulling her along with it across the field until she stood on flat, unmoving ground nearly a hundred meters away from the rest of them.

Locking her fingers together behind her back, she turned on her toes and walked back to them at a leisurely pace. A satisfaction filled her at getting to finally release some of a quirk - it served a dual purpose at also lessening the tension of all the other quirks in this school that constantly vibrated against her own. Kirishima and his friends were waving and cheering from the sidelines with a miffed looking Bakugo which added to her pleasure. Maybe he would make a good riv-

Kaiya felt it the moment the quirk landed within the grounds. Its power pressed on her even at this distance, a weight closing in around her chest where she kept the tugs of all her collected quirks. She gasped and her knees gave way, her lungs inflating faster and faster. She pressed her eyes together firmly, focusing on the mantra she'd used so many times in meditation.

My mind is stronger than my body… My mind is stronger than my body… My mind is stronger than my body…

Fuck, this was going to be embarrassing.

She forced her eyes open and squeezed her fingers into the ground beside her fallen knee, letting the dirt roll over her bare skin before pushing herself back up to her feet. Kirishima was running over, Kaminari and Sero close behind but she waved them off.

"I tripped!" she shouted through the blaring quirk that rocked through her body. Steeling what ruse she could from her past trips to town with Tomura, she wrinkled her nose and laughed nervously. The boys stopped in their tracks and blushed, laughing lightly together.

They met her halfway and walked her back to the group, excessively reminding her that she could go see Recovery Girl if she was injured.

Stupid boys.

The pounding of the quirk against hers dulled after her senses became used to it, though it was still hard to focus. There wasn't a doubt in her mind who it belonged to. The entrance gate was void of any passerbyers and the grounds were clear aside from one or two students walking to and from the dorms for one odd reason or another.

The final event was the softball throw and Kaiya couldn't have cared any less - that is, until she felt All Might approaching their practice area.

"Izuku Midoriya," Sensei announced as all of their attention spans were quickly fading, contrasting the rising heat of the afternoon. The small boy with green hair stepped forward and Kaiya wanted to cringe at the fear in his eyes.

But she was busy creeping away from the group, a difficult task after Kirishima and his friends had apparently decided to adopt her into their boy squad.

"Midoriya isn't doing very well," Ida commented offhandedly, crossing his arms across his chest and most of the class turned to him.

Bakugo barked beside him, "Well duh, he's a quirkless loser."

"Quirkless?!" Ida nearly shouted, appalled. "So you haven't heard about-" His voice faded as Kaiya shifted her focus to slipping away from their senseless argument over the wimpy boy's power - of which she knew full well existed. But that wasn't her concern right now. She padded off back toward the school building, preparing her full roster of quirks and remembering her plan.

It would have to be quick and subtle - not one of her quirks could match the physical strength of All Might, but she had plenty that would serve her well if she could get in close to him. She resisted the temptation to give in to the tension building in her muscles as she anticipated the confrontation - she was only going to the bathroom when she saw All Might and just wanted to meet him.

Her jaw flexed at the realization that at least the latter was true - but she had a job to do. She thought of Tomura - of his family - and let his quirk drip into her fingers.

"Hey," a gruff voice said from behind her and her brother's quirk retreated.

Kaiya dropped her chin slowly, an icy rage narrowing her vision. "What do you want?" she bit out.

Bakugo apparently didn't mind her back to him as he didn't make a move to enter her line of sight. "You have two quirks, pip squeak," he said in his perpetual growl.

Was this really why he'd followed her out away from the others? In her life before U.A. the only time she was alone with someone that wasn't in her villainous family, she was killing them. But that was not an option this time - sadly, there were too many witnesses. Plus, she hadn't gotten to experience his full quirk in action yet.

She spun on him. "Is this really necessary, blasty boy?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and a flicker of anger twitched at his lips. "If you think you're better than me because you have-"

Kaiya laughed, coming a little unhinged with how furious she was at the stupid, prideful boy. She sobered up and stepped into Bakugo's space. "I know I'm better than you," she told him, her voice low as she looked up at his flaming red eyes. "You will never be able to catch up to me with how often you'll trip on your massive, unearned ego. Now get the fuck away from me."

Bakugo's face was burning as he visibly shook with rage. "You're delusional, little girl."

"Shut your mouth and open your eyes," she countered, pressing both her hands into his chest as she shoved him away from her. The muscled blonde was forced back a step and he raised a crackling hand before it went blank.

"Seriously?" Aizawa-Sensei shouted and they both turned to see that the entire class was watching their brief display. "Are you begging me to expel you or what?"

"No," Kaiya and Bakugo reluctantly said together.

Kaiya held her twitching hands behind her back as All Might's quirk still pressed into her, willing her away with its very existence. She had been so close - so close to completing her mission on the first day. Her father would have been so pleased…

She dipped her head in a shameful fury as Sensei said, "Ito, you're up."

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Beads of sweat dripped from her brow to her hairline as it fell to the earth beneath her hands. Kaiya felt the grass between her fingers, tethering the sensation to the tips of her toes pointed skyward as she held her pose. Focusing on her core, she let her elbows give beneath her as she lowered her face to the ground slowly before straightening once more.

She'd thrown the softball carelessly after her failed attempt to find All Might alone, her final score falling satisfactorily in the middle of the pack.

She pressed herself again, passing her previous record of how many she could do before she started to shake.

And to make things worse, she'd been planning to blow off all of her steam training only to realize she wouldn't be able to train with a quirk on the grounds. A passing teacher had caught her creating an all-terrain course and told her to put it back the way it was and fill out the official paperwork to use the gym like everyone else.

"Stupid," she muttered as she fell into another press.

Students filtered out of the cafeteria in groups, already weaving friendships on their first day as they walked back to the dorms for the evening. She noticed a few of the kids in her class and watched them unabashedly as the taller, quieter boys made their way down the brick path that serpentined through the manicured lawn that separated the school from the residencies.

Kirishima and his friends came to her mind and she nearly groaned.

"Hey!"

The brunette always with Midoriya and Ida ran toward her, diverting from the walkway with a hand raised in a delighted wave. Kaiya focused on holding her pose as the girl approached.

"You're in my class! I'm Uraraka Ochaco," she introduced herself, balling her fists under her chin in her excitement. "You can call me Uraraka."

Kaiya didn't move, but she had already learned that when one of the students introduced themselves, she was expected to do the same. "I'm Kaiya Ito. Kaiya is fine."

"That's incredible athleticism," she commented, her eyes alight as she examined the way Kaiya held herself perfectly straight. She'd ditched her shirt that would only fall into her face and the muscles in her stomach twitched under Uraraka's scrutiny. "Do you always train like this?"

"Yep," Kaiya answered, staring past the girl.

"Wow, I want to try!"

Kaiya held her arms in place, refusing to let the shakes of weakness creep up on her as she watched Uraraka attempt to vault forward, only to lose to momentum. Her legs spread and kicked through the air as she tumbled forward onto her back.

Her training had been reduced to a play thing.

Sighing, she spoke up. "Focus on-"

"Uraraka!" Izuku Midoriya shouted from the edge of the dorms as Ida appeared behind him. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with warm watercolors in the distance as they ran toward their friend. "What are you guys doing?"

"Strength training, eh?" Ida deduced, studying Kaiya's form with two fingers at his chin. "I respect your dedication! I am-"

"Ida," Kaiya cut him off, grumbling between her clenched teeth as she started to wobble. He dropped his hand and she glared at him. "Yeah, I heard you in class earlier. I'm Kaiya."

"I saw the way you used gymnast techniques in the fitness assessment," Midoriya started without an introduction. "Do you integrate it in your fighting as well? It would make for an exceptional strategy for someone of your size and build, especially against a bulkier opponent like Ida here. Although with his speed…" he drifted into mumbling that Kaiya couldn't understand.

"She's teaching me to do a handstand!" Uraraka told the boys as she rose from the grass and tried again. This time she managed to stay afloat for a second or two, even keeping her feet together above her before her hips wobbled and she toppled over. Ida clapped his hands together once and started to strategize alterations for her stance.

Kaiya closed her eyes and sighed.

A soft chime rang out from her discarded belongings and she looked over to see a bright "BROTHER" written across the screen of the phone Giran had given her. Tightening her core, she shifted her weight onto one hand before letting the same leg fall over into a cartwheel and scooped up the ringing phone from the top of her shirt.

They'd be expecting news from her and she had nothing to offer them. She had been careful not to make a habit of failing her father's requests - those consequences she'd learned all too young.

"If you need to take that, we can go," Uraraka said and Kaiya looked over her shoulder at the girl who'd paused her efforts. Midoriya was behind her, giving the hand stand his first try as Ida knelt beside him critiquing his form.

The phone continued to ring in Kaiya's hand and she wondered what training she'd be participating if she were home right now. With a click, she muted the call and tossed it back down on the ground before turning to her clumsy classmates.

"You have to feel it in your stomach and your toes," she started, hoping the three of them knew that they wouldn't be leaving this field until they were perfect.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**.**

**j: alright, kaiya its time for another question!**

**kaiya: greeeeeat.**

**j: when you "copy" someone's quirk - does the original user get to keep it?**

**kaiya: uh, yeah. they're completely unaffected by me. that's why father always wanted them to die after i stole the quirks from them... so that no one else would have it but me.**

**j: wow, thats dark! ok another question!**

**kaiya: do i have to do this?**

**j: absolutely! okay, is tomura your brother?**

**kaiya: sigh. not biologically. father had recently adopted tomura when i was born. he's five years older than me.**

**j: what was sibling bonding like for the two of you?**

**kaiya: another one?**

**j: JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION.**

**kaiya: it was a lot of him chasing me around threatening to disintegrate me.**

**j: oh that's... that's also dark.**

**kaiya: yeah**

**j: yeah... OK FOLKS SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS VIA REVIEWS & LETS KEEP THIS SHITSHOW GOING!**


	3. Chapter 3

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Kaiya - Age Ten

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_Her father had woken her in the depths of the night. She was ten, though her sore muscles would argue if they could. He gripped her by the shirt and pulled her to her feet, dragging her blankets limply to the cold, clinical floor. Her legs barked in protest, desperate for more rest. _

_But father said it was important. _

_He charged ahead of her down the winding halls that blended together in her peripherals as she strained to keep up. She hoped they were going outside — hoped for one more chance to see him again. Maybe tonight would finally be her night to run. Maybe tonight she could be saved. Maybe tonight All Might would find her._

_But the massive double doors that she knew too well loomed around the corner and her hope splintered. _

_Father had never woken her this way. The last time he had strayed from their routine was when she'd met him — All Might, the hero who saved the lost boy. That had been so long ago… _

_Never mind the collectings. _

_Kaiya did her best not to think of the collectings. _

_He opened the doors to their training room with massive hands. She followed in his wake until he stepped aside, leaving her face to face with a boy older than her. _

_He was not quite a child, like her, but not quite a man like her father either. However, the bandages that covered most of his exposed skin made him seem older than his wide, terrified eyes. _

"_My new friend," her father said lordingly. "It is time for your payment to be made."_

_The boy watched Kaiya, his icy blue eyes peering from beneath dark wet hair. Black tears like ink dropped down his cheeks and sunk into the bandages that wrapped around his mouth and neck. _

"_It's a shame, really," her father said. "If only your lineage could have been more useful to me — but alas, I seem to have my hands full of jaded children already."_

_His calloused fingers fell onto her shoulder and she realized why she was here. Her eyes locked onto the boy's and his fear solidified, retreating to dawn a mask of indifference behind his dressings. _

_This was another collecting. _

_Kaiya's lip trembled and she bit it, beckoning the taste of blood to steel her nerves. The eyes of the mother came to her first, before the eyes of the many that followed her. She wanted to tell them she was sorry. She wanted to tell them —_

_She was helpless too. _

_Kaiya approached the teenager slowly, nearly dragging her bare feet across the cold floor. Their eyes connected the entire way, refusing to back down — refusing to show the fear that tightened around both of their throats. She laid a small hand on the center of his chest, feeling the thick stitches woven into his damaged skin beneath the bandages. _

_And released her quirk._

* * *

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Chapter Three - Battle Training

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Kaiya hated to run, but she hadn't realized just how terrible a decision her morning jog had been until the first day of real classes began. Her mood already sour, she struggled to keep from decaying the desk beneath her palms as Present Mic rambled on about types of verbs.

The buzzing today was almost unbearable, but she steeled herself knowing that she was projecting her true feelings. She sucked in a tense breath and rested her chin on a fist.

She was terrible at school.

Every class had been more than she'd ever learned at home. Her scores had barely passed the written portion of the entrance exams after cramming and memorizing the worksheets the Dr. had given her. The heaviest pulse in the room beat against her concentration and she clenched her fist in her lap as the girl she'd learned was Yaoyorozu answered a question she hadn't heard.

Her note taking was pitiful, but she scribbled relentlessly anyway. She could not fail — could not let the reason she was kicked out of All Might's grasp be her own stupidity.

She could practically see Tomura's smug face upon her return.

No, she would have to spend much more time in her studies than she'd ever anticipated — least until she could get herself alone with All Might and go back home.

When they were dismissed for lunch, she hung her head shamefully, her long inky hair spilling beside her poorly organized notes. Maybe if she wrote them all over and over again, it would all stick…

The classroom had almost entirely emptied before she put her things away and embarked toward the cafeteria. The idea of a mass kitchen seemed odd to her, but she fell into the tide of other students nevertheless, finally finding herself completely overwhelmed by the amount of bodies filing into the large space.

By the time she'd made it through the irritatingly large line, while doing her best to nonchalantly comb the masses all finding seats with one another, she'd decided to take her food back to her dorm for lunch.

"Kaiya!" Uraraka chirped from over her shoulder, her tray already in hand. "Come sit with me! The cafeteria is always scary on the first day," she chuckled.

"Ah," she mumbled, looking over the brunette's shoulder to the crowd beyond. "Sure." Kaiya wasn't quite sure what she was agreeing to, but she told herself lunch was only one hour.

Uraraka checked to make sure Kaiya was following as they stepped into the fray. Kaiya felt a few stronger quirks amongst them, but the familiar ones weren't in range and she wondered where Bakugo and the boy with multi-colored hair had made off to. Hero classes were this afternoon and she considered whether she would need any sort of preparation or if it would be more book learning. Surely she would actually be able to keep up in that class.

Uraraka's posture perked and Kaiya followed her line of sight to see a stiff hand waving enthusiastically toward them.

"It's Ida and Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed over the fog of conversation that filled the cafeteria. She quickened her pace and Kaiya braced herself for the quirk that pushed hers back like two sides of the same magnet.

"Hey guys!" Sure enough, Midoriya was sitting across from Ida, their trays set out between them. Uraraka slid into her seat beside him seamlessly, though Kaiya caught the hint of a blush on her cheeks and decided to take note.

"Hey, thanks for the seats you guys," Uraraka said with a kind smile as she set down her food.

Kaiya sat next to Ida without comment, replaying the boys' performances in the fitness text the day prior.

"Of course," Ida told them both before taking his first bite. "Going to a new school can be stressful on the mind and inhibit top performance."

Uraraka nodded with her mouth full. Kaiya ate quietly across from her as this morning's classes poured over in her mind. Was this school more difficult than most because of its prestige or were all schools this way? What was the use in sentence structure in the real world anyway?

Her official documents had said that she was homeschooled, but that had been yet another lie. Schooling of the traditional sort had been moot in her upbringing — what point was there to her learning advanced math or how to write an essay with a completed bibliography? Beyond learning to read, her teachings had been only on what was relevant to her end goal and her quirks — basic science and a little bit of a mix of geography and history for her occasional travels. She'd had to know enough to blend in with society, should the need arise for a mission.

The frustration was consuming and, well, disappointing.

"Kaiya?"

She looked up from her empty bowl of noodles to see the three of them staring at her. "Yes?"

"We were talking about quirks," Uraraka explained.

Midoriya's eyes turned innocently analytical. "Your control over the earth was so precise and controlled yesterday."

"And you're so strong!" Uraraka added, holding up a flexed arm. "After seeing all those flips you could do it's no wonder you can train in a handstand."

Kaiya wondered why that was so surprising. Sure, she'd worked with them on their handstands yesterday, but was her performance actually outstanding by their standards?

Ida cleared his throat. "I overheard Bakugo after your standing long jump," he told her, pushing up his glasses. "He said you have two quirks? I assume he was in your practical exam then?"

Curious eyes fell on her. "Yeah, he was." She could do this. She prepared for this question. "It's not two quirks, exactly. I can control basic elements."

"Earth, water, fire, and air?" Midoriya said with more excitement than she'd expected.

Kaiya nodded slowly.

Uraraka sat up in her chair. "Which did you use for the entrance exam?"

"Water," she said, the haunting eyes that followed that quirk flashing through her mind.

"Oh wow," Midoriya commented, a far off look growing in his stare as his quirk bounced off of hers again. "You could use that for so many things."

Kaiya tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and levelled a gaze at him. "What about you? What's your quirk?"

Midoriya's shoulders slackened and his brow furrowed. "It's an enhancing quirk," he said, his voice drifting.

"That's how you took down that zero pointer with one punch!" Uraraka cheered.

Ida held his chin. "But the damage it does to your body is quite strange."

"Yeah," Midoriya agreed, scratching his head. "I discovered my quirk pretty late, so I'm still trying to understand how to use it properly."

Kaiya narrowed her eyes. "You need to get to know it." The table turned to her and Midoriya's brow relaxed. "A quirk isn't just a weapon to be unleashed at will — it's a part of who you are now. You need to learn everything about it intimately and give it permission to inhabit you. Quirks are not simply tools for glory and power. Respect yours and treat it like the gift it is."

"I-" Midoriya stuttered, concern rittling his features once more.

"Wow, Kaiya," Uraraka said thoughtfully. "I've never looked at it that way."

Kaiya pulled her hands together in her lap. "There's a spirit to every quirk, whether you realize it or not. Tapping into it and connecting with it is what will unleash your true strength. Quirks are only an extension of self."

"Beautifully said," Ida replied. "You sound as though you've taught this before?"

Kaiya watched Midoriya's mind spinning behind his eyes. "No," she said. "I just know what it's like to get used to a brand new quirk." She collected her things and left the table to dispose of her dishes as she'd seen so many others around her do, not bothering to linger on the expressions she'd left behind.

Whatever Midoriya and his friends wanted out of her, she wasn't going to give it.

There was still some time left before class began again, but Kaiya wouldn't have enough time to head back to the dorm so she found herself heading back toward her classroom nevertheless. School was beyond frustrating. She hadn't felt All Might's quirk since she'd seen him yesterday and she hadn't been able to really let loose during class yesterday. Her quirk was building a restlessness in her that desperately needed to be released. She wouldn't survive with hero courses and minimal P.E. time as her only training.

She rounded the corner of the first year hero track classes and saw Aizawa-Sensei ducking out of their classroom.

"Sensei!" she shouted before she could stop to consider herself. Hurrying her pace, she caught up to him in the hall.

He stopped with a sigh and turned. "Yes, Ito?"

"Is there some way I can actually train outside of class?" she asked.

"I assume you mean that you want to train your quirk outside of school hours," he questioned, his voice flat. Kaiya nodded. "You can request to use Gamma Gym. I'll tell Principal Nezu and let you know whether you're approved for one of the hour long time slots."

She nodded once more. "Thank you, Sensei."

"Be aware that the gym has limited slots. Usually the first years don't realize it's available for use, so you'll mostly be vying with the second and third years for times. Approval is a privilege for initiative. If it is awarded to you then you will have that time slot every day until other's make a claim to share or split time from within your class."

"Yes, Sensei."

He shifted his hands into his pockets and grunted as he turned to leave.

"Wait, are you not teaching our hero course today?"

He replied without facing her as he walked away down the hall. "No. Other pro teachers will step in on occasion to teach them. Be prepared."

Kaiya watched him retreat until he turned a corner before stepping into her classroom still early enough that she would have time to look over her notes from this morning. Despite how much she hated it, she would have to learn all the material necessary to keep up with the others. There was no option other than staying at UA long enough to end All Might.

She stopped short in the threshold as her eyes fell on Bakugo already in his seat. His notebook was open in front of him as he leaned over it, reading. He didn't notice her until she was a step away and he reared back with a sneer on his face. She ignored him and pulled her own notes from her bag to skim them until the rest of the class finally began to trickle in.

Kirishima and Sero called her name when they arrived and she looked up to return their waves, noticing that Bakugo had put away all his own school work before anyone had returned to class. With all twenty students back and in their assigned places, they waited.

Kaiya didn't have to wonder who was teaching their class for long. She felt his quirk the moment he landed on the grounds once again. Her range couldn't normally reach throughout the entire campus, but the stronger the quirk, the harder it was for it to blend into the distant melee of power. She followed his steps as they grew closer, the pressure of his unnatural quirk weighing on her with his nearness. She squeezed her fingers in her lap and braced herself.

"I HAVE…" they all heard from the open doorway, "COME THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE NORMAL!"

All Might entered their classroom dramatically and all the students burst with idle chatter about his fame and power and even which costume he'd chosen to wear. Kaiya concentrated on twiddling her thumbs under her desk to keep the suffocating feeling of his quirk at bay.

Maybe killing All Might was going to be more difficult than she'd expected.

"Hero basic training!" the massive hero exclaimed from the front of the class. "The class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes!" The students all cheered as he went on, "No time to dally! Today's special training is this:

"BATTLE TRAINING!" All Might declared, holding up a card that read "BATTLE".

Kaiya could feel the desk behind her shift in excitement as the room turned electric around her. Students perked up in their seats and whispered amongst each other.

"And for that! You'll need these!" All Might gestured to the wall directly on Kaiya's left and it opened up, revealing cases labelled with numbers one through twenty. "In accordance with the "Quirk Registry" and the special request forms you filled out before being admitted…

"COSTUMES!"

Students stood from their desk, wild with excitement. Kaiya spun her thumbs faster.

"After you get changed, come out in ranking order to Ground Beta!" All Might finished at last, turning with a flair and leaving them all to their new task.

With his departure came relief that flooded through Kaiya. The others all crowded around the cases jutting out of the wall and she saw Bakugo reach for his without standing. They raced from the room toward the locker rooms and Kaiya waited for some space before picking up the case with her own seat number on it.

"Hey!" Mina said as she came to sit beside an already dressed Kaiya on a bench in the girls' locker room. "Looks like we'll be heading out together."

Kaiya managed a nod, but it was hard to distance her mind from All Might's presence not so far away.

"I like your costume," the pink girl said cheerfully as the girl with earphone jacks hanging from her ears came to lean on some lockers beside them.

"Thanks," Kaiya said. "Yours are cool too."

Mina pulled two fists to her chest. "I know! They got mine exactly the way I'd wanted it!"

"Mine too," the other girl said. "I'm Kyoka Jiro."

"Kaiya Ito," she told them, the lie of a name rolling off her tongue easier every time she said it. "They didn't alter anything from what I'd requested either."

Filling out the costume request form was a pain. She'd considered leaving it blank, but when the idea of them creating any monstrocity they wanted with only the guidance of her false quirk came to mind, she'd thought better of it. She'd settled on a tight black velvet jumpsuit with a collar and no sleeves. Her boots were admittedly her favorite part, their combat style and militant green color gave her a sense of battle that made her edgy.

"We need to get on the bus," Mina suggested before standing. Kaiya followed her and Jiro from the room until they found the rest of their class and all filed onto the bus as Ida shouted at them about order. She sat between Mina and Jiro and tuned out the group's talking on the ride over. They finally arrived and stepped off the bus in order of their ranks on the fitness test. Yaoyorozu was first and then the boy with the multi-colored hair. Others followed until it was Mina's turn and then hers.

All Might announced their game - Kaiya found it hard to see it as anything less, despite understanding that it was meant for training purposes. They were to be paired off and deemed heroes or villains. Villains were to protect a faux nuclear weapon and/or catch the heroes while the heroes were to rescue the weapon by touching it or capturing the villains.

All Might drew for their pairs and she ended up with the blonde boy with the tail.

"Uh, hi," he said as he approached her with a shy smile. "I'm Mashirao Ojiro and you're Kaiya Ito, right?"

Kaiya nodded, keeping her attention to where All Might was drafting the teams for the first match. "We can discuss our strategy when its our turn." Midoriya's team and Bakugo's team were drawn first and Kaiya found herself grinning at the idea of that match up. "I want to watch the others."

The class made their way to an observation room that held a wall of monitors that scoured the empty building within the mock city that was Ground Beta. Bakugo and Ida were an interesting match up that Kaiya found incompatible, however Midoriya and Uraraka together had almost seemed too good to be true as far as relationships went.

She watched their battle in silence, even as the others discussed. The chaos that was Bakugo against Midoriya was almost consuming to the point she'd managed to find breathing room in the distraction from All Might's presence. Bakugo was talented, but rash like a child. Midoriya was backed into a corner power-wise, but had the sense of mind to use strategy to his advantage. If Bakugo had a clear mind and heart and the wisdom to use foresight along with his fine control, he would be difficult to beat.

Midoriya on the other hand was curious. What exactly was his quirk that it was breaking his bones every time he used it? He was forcing it, that much was sure. If he could let it flow freely instead of thrusting it out on command, she was positive that he would make incredible strides quickly with a tactical mind like his.

After all of their teams injuries had been assessed, All Might drew for the next round and she was up.

And against the boy with multi-colored hair.

The pairs made their way from the observation deck down onto the field and Kaiya hated to admit that she was excited.

But as she stood beside Ojiro inside their host building, she had to fight the urge to look out the near window to spy on her competition. The largest quirk in the class was her enemy for this exercise and though she'd hoped they would avoid the reckless mistakes of Midoriya and Bakugo before them, she wouldn't mind a little action after the day she'd had.

"Should we come up with a plan now then? Todoroki and Shoji are both fierce competition." Ojiro said. Their massive faux weapon was behind them in all its hollow, missile-shaped glory. "You have an earth quirk, right? Can you use it in a building like this?"

She looked up at the blonde boy with the muscular tail, noting the names of the two boys below. Shoji sat beside her in class, which meant multi-colored hair boy was Todoroki. "Not without damaging the building," she told him. "But I'm not worried."

Ojiro scratched his temple and checked the doorway as if Todoroki and Shoji could walk in at any moment. "Should you be on the ground floor?"

"I think Todoroki would have less of an advantage in the halls than the open space of this room," she thought out loud. "Do you know exactly what they're capable of?"

"Not really aside from what we saw during the fitness test," Ojiro shook his head. "But I heard that Todoroki got into UA on recommendation."

That made sense.

Their planning time was quickly running low. "Judging from his hero costume, I'd say he has an ice quirk." She looked back to the window that opened up to the street below where the hero team was waiting. "I'll cut him off downstairs. Can you handle yourself against Shoji?"

Ojiro folded in his brows with thought. "He's strong, but I believe I'm more equipped for direct combat as long as I can keep the upper hand on all his extra limbs."

Kaiya nodded. "I'll head down then."

The halls of the empty building within the mock city were bare and gray. The olive green boots of her hero costume were quiet on the smooth cement flooring as she turned toward the first stairway just as All Might announced in her earpiece that the match had begun.

She held back her grimace at the thought of All Might and increased her pace, reminding herself not to be too eager for a fight.

The cold hit her before she saw the ice and a slow smile crept across her cheeks.

He was quick and powerful with his quirk, she noted as ice cracked across the stone from every direction. It sealed her feet in place and she swallowed her thrill at the oncoming confrontation. Crunching footsteps crept up from below until Todoroki appeared, half his body covered in ice and concealing the recognizable burn and half a head of red hair she knew lie beneath.

"You can try to fight," he said flatly as he approached. "But without the soles of your feet it will be painful."

Kaiya released a low chuckle and Todoroki's dark eyes shot to her. "Do you think you're that unstoppable?"

She raised a hand and he was quicker. A block of ice shot up from the floor and encased her - and her arms - up to her waist. His expression hardly changed as he offered her a brief, "Yes," before he continued his walk up the stairs, moving to step right past her.

"Think again."

Kaiya called upon the indebted quirk she'd favored for its flare. Her ice prison burst away from her skin and bright blue flame lit around her, effectively melting away the presence of his quirk. She lifted a palm between them and let the fire manifest for him to see.

"What will you do now, ice boy?" she taunted. "How will your ice make it past my fire?"

A small snarl raised at his lip. Ice shot out and she leapt to the side, calling out to her burning for a wall of heat as a shield to liquify and evaporate his attack. He barreled toward her, ice rising with his movements as high as his knees. She twisted back, careful to keep herself between him and her faux weapon.

"Sheer power can only take you so far," she said, her dark braid whipping over her shoulder and around her neck. "You don't intimidate me, Todoroki. I can match your force. If you want to beat me you'll need cunning and heart."

He only scoffed. At once, he raised a hand and stepped. Ice built along the ceiling before sharpening into spears as more ice shot out from his feet directly toward her.

Kaiya jumped, prepared to ricochet herself off of one wall to the other, and left a massive trail of fire in her wake. Steam fogged between them as the ice on the floor melted. She darted through it as she heard the cracking of Todoroki's spears falling from above. Throwing out a burst of fire above her, she reached out for her landing and volleyed herself back and out of the steam, away from his attack. She heard another round of ice splintering from his steps and crouched. With both of her palms on the cement floor, she lit a wave of blue flame that rolled toward him.

"Y'know," she called out as she rose. He pushed a larger barrage of ice toward her and she pulled an arm of fire in front of her to counter. "I have to say it's nice to see one person here who understands that a quirk is an extension of oneself." He sent ice crawling along the walls for her once more and she covered the space between them in flame, the bright blue of their quirks illuminating their faces as they stared at one another. "Quirks are not meant to be used only for weapons - they are a part of who you are."

Despite the heat thickening the dense air throughout the hall, Todoroki summoned his ice once more.

And apparently whatever Kaiya had just said had really pissed him off.

The entire hall filled with ice. He encased her with it, leaving her only one toe touching the ground as he'd caught her in mid-movement. She started to let her gifted blue flames, the only quirk ever given from its owner freely, until she saw Todoroki melting his own attack.

He possessed fire too.

Suddenly his hairstyle was making sense.

He melted himself a pathway and she waited for him to pass by her, struggling to calm the short breaths she could manage with the cold. But as she prepared a wave of fire to ignite his left side, something about his expression struck a chord in her. There was a hollowness in his eyes that she'd seen before.

There was something lonely about being gifted with great power without a choice.

So she watched him go and when he passed, she closed her eyes. Their faces all replayed through her mind like a haunting story of grief and she wished again, as she had the night she'd received this quirk, that she could have told them all that she was as much a pawn as they were. The helplessness of all those whose quirks she'd amassed had only stacked onto her own throughout the years and the weight of all their broken faiths had her relishing in the sharp cold of Todoroki's ice.

Yes, she'd seen the look on his face as he'd passed her on the stairs many, many times before.

The hero team won and she'd freed herself with the bandaged boy's fire as soon as All Might had announced the victory in her earpiece. Todoroki narrowed his eyes at her when he'd come to thaw her from his quirk, but he said nothing.

The others' battles weren't nearly as eventful as hers or Midoriya and Bakugo's, but she studied them in the observation room with the class anyway. She learned their names as they were all called forward and she found herself wishing she could work with Kaminari on controlling his electricity and Mina on weaponizing her acid.

When they made their way back onto the bus everyone was abuzz with discussion over the fights. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero had all congratulated her on her performance as well as Ida and Uraraka. She stepped into the aisle between seats and saw hers from the ride over was still vacant beside Jiro, but in the very back seat was Todoroki, looking out the window with that same look in his eyes.

She crossed the bus and sat beside him without a word. His quirks were almost like a duet against her, a siren's song attempting to pull her in to steal them away. But she had long overcome urges of that sort, instead typically finding the calls to be an annoying reminder of what she was capable of.

"You could have won," he said softly, his cheek so close to the window she imagined his breath turning it to ice. "You weren't trapped in my ice."

"Maybe," she answered him as the bus took off with everyone but Midoriya who was sent to the infirmary for his excessively broken arm.

"I don't need anyone going easy on me. There's no honor in that," he told her as he leaned back in his seat.

She pulled her braid loose and ran her fingers through the damp strands. "There's no honor in stepping on the broken either."

His mouth popped open and she saw the rebuttal he wanted to throw at her behind his lips before he clamped them shut and turned away from her again.

She wondered if perhaps Todoroki had been trained like she had - if maybe there were others out there who only knew a life of battle and power.

"You don't know me," Todoroki muttered toward his window.

She crossed her arms across the thick velvet of her costume. "You don't know me either."

They rode the rest of the way to the school in silence and when she was finally back at her dorm she pulled out her notes from this morning and fell asleep memorizing mathematical formulas just as the sun went down through her window.

Her phone buzzed on her nightstand as three calls went unanswered.

.

.

* * *

**Author's Note: Planning for this story has taken precedence over writing it soooo don't worry I'm still updating, just probably slower than anticipated. I do, however, already have future scenes written out so hopefully I will eventually be moving at a good speed. I hope you all like my Kaiya character! If not now, then maybe later. We'll see. **

**.**

**Leave a review with what you think! And with any interview questions for the characters in this AU!**

* * *

**j: kaiya, what's your favorite thing for dinner?**

**kaiya: uhh, probably take out. cooking isn't really my thing. but i do like to pop dumplings.**

**j: aizawa! what is your favorite present mic phrase?**

**aizawa: why are you asking me this question.**

**j: c'mon, humor me!**

**aizawa: aren't these for students**

**j: C'MONNNNNN**

**aizawa: fine. i can tell you my least favorite of his phrases. "wake up." i've been hearing that one way too much lately.**

**j: oooooh really?**

**aizawa: leave me alone. i'm taking a nap.**

**j: OKAY LAST QUESTION FOR ANY OF YOU 1A STUDENTS! what was it like to play a villain?**

**sero: it's hard to get in the mindset actually!**

**ida: their desperation to have their way is an interesting frame of mind, though it could only lead to defeat in the face of true heroes!**

**momo: i personally looked at it as i was protecting something of value from someone trying to take it from me, the strategy can work well for either side with enough planning. **

**kouda: ...**


	4. Chapter 4

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Tomura - Age Sixteen

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.

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_Tomura watched his little sister's weak, trembling steps as she retreated to her room. He wasn't allowed in her training sessions with their father, nor was he allowed to spar with his sister. He was, however, required to offer his quirk to her._

_He leaned against the corner of the pale hallway that held her room, and her room only._

_What a princess._

_Tomura's turn with father would begin shortly, so he should not be wasting the time of spying on her, yet he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. She shouldered her door, holding up the bulk of her small frame with the handle, completely blind to his lingering presence at the end of the hall. Her weakness followed her everywhere._

_And now, that weakness was a liability that he knew his father would not agree with._

_He scratched at his neck, the fine tips of his nails tearing away the outer layers of flesh. Tomura was not supposed to know of father's new plan, let alone have an opinion on it. He wanted to have faith in his father's insight so badly, however, he could not find the trust in himself to do so - not for her._

_He could be the one to go to UA. He could kill All Might himself._

_But instead father had chosen Kaiya._

_Tomura had heard her ungrateful cries in the night. With her vision for their future severely lacking, how could he manage to support such a great task to such a frail girl?_

_Sister._

_He could spit on the term._

_Every time he looked at her, he filled with waves of nausea. He stared at her long dark hair, damp with sweat and blood, sweeping over her delicate, breakable features with disdain. She should not be the one sent out on missions. She should not be the one with their fate on her shoulders._

_She finally found the strength to open her door and he watched her drag her legs the last steps inside, shutting it behind her with a soft click. The sound of her collapse followed soon after and his lip curled. He licked them slowly, staring at her room as if he could see through her walls to the crumbling child that lie on the other side._

_Tomura would do whatever it took to prove to father that he was the one who was strong. He was the one who was worthy._

_He would be the one to kill All Might._

* * *

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Chapter Four - Rescue Training

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Kaiya woke in an unusually good mood despite her scattered notes across her bed. She'd slept with her face on her english assignment, though it was blessedly not due until tomorrow. Darkness spilled in from her window, her phone and its soft chime the only light in her room. Shutting off her alarm, she rose and stretched the sleep from her muscles.

Tomura had called her.

She changed in silence, donning the same black and white pieces she wore for all of her trainings for the last few years. She rushed through brushing her teeth in the attached bath, finally illuminating her increasingly cluttered living space. As she braided her hair down her back, she noticed a piece of paper that had been slipped beneath her door.

_Kaiya Ito of Class 1-A,_

_Your request to reserve Gamma Gym for independent training has been granted. Your time slot is 0600-0700, Monday through Friday. These hours are supervised and this privilege may be revoked at any time._

_Use this gift wisely._

_U.A. Staff_

Kaiya bounded for her bed, tossing the blankets until her phone fell to the floor with a sharp thud. She had less than fifteen minutes to make it. Her phone and key in hand, she took off for the elevators apathetic to her volume level. She raced to the gym, barely remembering where it was after looking it up when Aizawa-Sensei had told her its name.

No other students seemed to be out before the sun had risen over the campus, though she'd seen a few out running the day before during her own morning jog. She crossed the courtyards quickly, not bothering with the paved pathways. A morning dew still wet the grass and thickened the April air as she ran for her destination - her solution to all the energy she'd been bottling over the past two days.

The solid gray double doors that led inside struck her with a sickening, familiar feeling that she quickly shoved aside before pulling them open and stepping inside.

The gymnasium was bright inside and made of wall to wall cement with painted boundaries marking the floor. The expansive training area was more than enough space for her to let loose, but she hadn't given thought to her supervisor until her eyes fell upon a man with other-worldly deep blue skin in the furthest corner.

And beside him was a boy with familiar blonde hair.

"Kaiya Ito?" the dark figure asked as she approached and nodded to him. "I am Ectoplasm and I will be your independent training supervisor."

"Why is she here?!" Bakugo snarled, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his baggy black sweatpants.

Ectoplasm tilted his head. Most of his body was hidden beneath a large tan trench coat that made Kaiya uneasy. "The two of you both applied for independent use of Gamma Gym for training and as you are both from the same year of hero courses, this time slot must be shared."

"What?!" the boy argued. "That's not what I signed up for!"

Kaiya glared at him.

"Then you are free to forfeit your acceptance," Ectoplasm said calmly and Bakugo shut his mouth. "That's what I thought. Now, the two of you can decide whether you'd like to alternate days with one another or share the space every morning. This time is only given to those who seek it out and is not freely offered, so I would also suggest maintaining your privacy over the matter should you want to keep these trainings between as few of your classmates as possible."

Bakugo looked down at her, frustration tensing his features. "I'm not giving up any of my days, so you better just stay out of my way."

"As long as you stay out of mine," she agreed, her tone matching his.

"Wise decision," Ectoplasm told them. "My quirk offers me the use of clones, which are at your disposal should you be so inclined. I will, however, avoid stepping in or offering advice. This is your independent time. The teachers who volunteer their own time to oversee it will not be guiding any of you."

When neither Kaiya nor Bakugo had anything to say to that he continued, "Feel free to begin. You have fifty-two minutes left." He walked away, over toward a seating area near the door with only a handful of chairs and Kaiya noticed his false legs.

Turning off her curiosity, she shot Bakugo one more look and followed the teacher to the opposing side of the gym. "Stay on your side," she called out over her shoulder before requesting two of Ectoplasm's clones.

. . .

Kaiya's morning classes sucked again, but she was on such a high from destroying Ectoplasm's clones over and over again this morning that she hardly noticed. Sure enough, today was proving to be a much better day than yesterday.

The cafeteria was still an awful experience and she decided she would need to start avoiding it all together. She had just stepped out of line with her lunch when she spotted Uraraka waving for her at a nearby table with Ida and Midoriya.

"Hey Kaiya! You wanna sit with us again?" Uraraka offered as Kaiya came closer, dodging the other students on criss-crossing paths through the large open eating area.

"No," Kaiya told the table as she looked over her shoulder restlessly. "I think I want to find a quieter place to eat."

"Oh," Uraraka said and the two boys shared a glance.

Kaiya chewed her lip at the gnawing sensation in her gut at the other girl's disappointment. "Thank you though," she said quietly, turning away as she saw Uraraka grin at her again.

The three of them all waved and she heard them say, "Any time!" all at once.

Outside was only slightly better. The mass of quirks was becoming fuzzier as she got used to all of their nonstop power levels brushing and beating against her, but even outside there were students milling about on outdoor tables with benches and many were walking to and from the dorms. She changed course, following the brick of the building's side as she avoided any direction with people. Tall, thick trees sprouted from the nearly too-green grass all over campus and she decided she would find a shady spot amongst them.

She turned the corner of the cafeteria building and nearly sighed with relief at the lack of students beyond. That is, until she realized she was headed straight toward the small grove of trees that Todoroki was sitting under.

She groaned and considered retreat, instead eyeing the next possible shaded area when Todoroki spoke.

"I don't like you," he said simply.

Kaiya frowned. "I don't like you either."

He turned his multi-colored eyes away from her. "But I do want to know more about your quirks."

"Good for you," she lipped, wishing she wasn't awkwardly holding a tray of food.

He rolled his eyes. "Just come sit down."

She stood for a while longer before finally relenting, telling herself it was only because her food was getting cold. Todoroki ate his noodles in unashamedly large bites and she twirled her own gently before digging in. The food at this school was so much better than any she'd ever had back at home. Her phone suddenly felt like a brick in her pocket, weighing her down with the knowing that she'd missed all of her brother's calls so far. She told herself that last night wasn't on purpose, without reminding herself that she could have called him back multiple times today.

She needed to update him on All Might's comings and goings, but honestly, she just really didn't want to talk to him. The space had been freeing in a way and though she spent most of her time at U.A. so far feeling entirely uncomfortable, she hadn't missed home either.

Home wasn't even the right word for it, but that wasn't a train of thought she was willing to go down right now.

Todoroki broke their silence without grace. "Can you use your quirks simultaneously?"

Kaiya didn't look up from her food. "No."

"Have you ever tried?"

"No."

He set down his empty bowl on its tray in the grass. "Why not?"

She shrugged and swallowed a bite of noodles. "Never had a need to."

"You've never thought to train it?" he asked, his voice growing more gentle with curiosity.

"I focus more on mastering each of them - learning them inside and out. I want to be precise and agile with the same amount of force as I would be with a wall of sheer power," she explained, her thoughts shifting toward her training this morning. The only damper on her otherwise pleasant day had been the realization that with witnesses in Gamma Gym, she would only be able to train with the elemental quirks she'd registered with the school.

But that pessimism had been quickly squashed with a thrill when she'd summoned the moisture from every blade of grass into a whip to take on her two clones.

"So you never train them together?" Todoroki prodded further.

She set down her finished meal and watched a group of students in the distance walking back toward the main building from the dorms. "I train my reflexes as far as switching between them. If I'm fast enough it's almost as if I'm using multiple at once, especially when their effects are lasting once I've released control over them."

He seemed to ponder this, his white and red hair blowing gently in the breeze.

"Do you ever use your fire?" she asked, recalling the way his hero costume covered the left side - the fire side - of his body and the way he'd thawed the stairway of ice with precision the day prior.

He slid darkened eyes toward her. "No. I don't."

"Why not?" she pressed.

Todoroki's shoulders fell, but he kept his chin up and watched the students all heading back to class beside her. "I won't give my father the satisfaction."

Kaiya's face slackened.

"Good."

They walked back to class together after clearing and disposing of their trays in a newly comfortable silence before parting wordlessly for their desks. Bakugo was already in his seat behind hers and they shared a glance, the secret of their training an annoying tie between them. Midoriya and his friends arrived soon after and each offered her a greeting of some sort which she reluctantly returned before Aizawa-Sensei stepped into the room.

"Alright, now for today's basic hero training," he said solemnly as he pulled out a card identical to All Might's yesterday that read "RESCUE". "Today we'll have rescue training with All Might, myself, and a special guest teacher."

"Rescue, huh…" Kaminari said from behind her. "Sounds like another rough day."

"Right?" Mina called out from across the room.

Kirishima sat forward in his seat eagerly. "Come on, this is what being a hero's all about! I'm pumped!"

The frog-like girl she'd learned was Tsuyu Asui from battle training spoke up, "I'll be right at home in a flood. Ribbet."

Aizawa-Sensei glared at the class to quiet them. "Hey. I'm not done."

He explained the premise of disaster relief efforts and warned them all of using their hero costumes before sending them off to the locker rooms to change and board the bus.

Kaiya, Jiro, and Momo were dressed first and left the locker rooms together.

"Ida is really going after this class representative thing, huh?" Jiro said idly as the approached.

He wore his full bulky hero costume without its mask and as the others trickled outside Kaiya noticed everyone but Midoriya had chosen to wear their costumes as well. Her own was comfortable enough, though the brisk wind caused a chill across her bare arms. She'd need to think of adding a jacket for the colder months.

Momo sighed. "It's a little over the top, don't you think?"

Kaiya shrugged and stepped up to board the bus with the rest of the class, the other two girls following close behind her.

She wanted to avoid the open space in the front where most of the seats were, but each of the forward facing booths in the back already had an occupant. Looking past the prickly Bakugo, she settled herself down next to Todoroki who was already leaning his head back with his eyes closed.

She leaned back too, avoiding the blonde spiky hair in front of her as Momo sat beside Uraraka in the aisle next to her. The group in the open seating area talked the entire way, igniting Bakugo at some point but all Kaiya saw was Kirishima showing off his hardening quirk and the quieter blonde boy talking up his naval laser.

All Might was supposed to be at this training, though she knew his quirk wasn't in their vicinity. His quirk was a beam that crashed through all the other quirks that had finally become normal to her senses. If he were near, she would know it.

They offloaded the bus and congregated in front of a massive dome-shaped building.

"Welcome students!" the waiting pro hero exclaimed from within their aerospace suit as the class crowded around. "I am Thirteen and this is the training ground I like to call the USJ!"

The hero explained the stadium they created as the group followed them inside and even Kaiya found herself in awe of the training potential held within. It was divided into sectors for assorted disasters, mostly natural, and Thirteen seemed exceptionally proud.

"Listen carefully," Thirteen said as the class gathered around near the edge of the largest set of stairs Kaiya had ever laid eyes on. She pushed her focus toward the pro and away from the fact that she still couldn't sense All Might. "As I'm sure most of you are aware, my quirk is called Black Hole. It can suck in and tear apart anything."

"And you've used it to save people in all sorts of disasters!" Mirodiya interrupted as Uraraka cheered beside him.

Kaiya kept toward the back of the group and Kirishima came up beside her. "Are you excited?" he asked her in a hushed tone.

She slid her eyes to him. "Yes. Pay attention," she whispered back.

"... Indeed," Thirteen continued. "However, my power could easily kill. I've no doubt there are some among you with similar abilities." The class sobered up as they listened. "In out super-powered society the use of quirks is heavily restricted and monitored. It may seem like this system is a stable one, but we must never forget that it just takes one wrong move with an uncontrollable quirk for people to die."

Kaiya felt a weight in her chest that she was sure none of the others were feeling. Everyone around her truly believed in this world and this ideology. Heroes were meant to protect and to save - to keep an order so foreign to her that she suddenly felt very out of place among them.

To truly treasure life as they did…

Thirteen went on, "During Aizawa's physical fitness test you came to learn some of your own hidden potential. Through All Might's battle training you experienced the danger that your respective quirks pose to others. This class will show you a new perspective! You will utilize your quirks to save lives!"

An excitement rose from the gathered students and Kaiya couldn't help but feel it too, until she stopped herself. She wasn't here to learn to save anyone.

She was not created for such a purpose.

"Your powers are not meant to inflict harm," Thirteen said and Kaiya clenched her teeth. "I hope you leave here today with the understanding that you are meant to help people." Thirteen took a bulky bow in their thick, round costume. "That is all. Thank you for listening!"

Ida broke into applause and a few others shared their awed impressions of the seasoned hero as Aizawa kicked off the pillar he'd been resting against.

"Great. First off…"

But he was interrupted by sparks shooting out from the ring of lights and monitors that surrounded the facility. Kirishima stepped closer to Kaiya as the students all watched the hidden electronic devices click with small bursting sounds. Aizawa turned toward the dias at the bottom of the stairway slowly.

A purple fog swirled into existence at its center and Kaiya's stomach turned to ice infinitely colder than Todoroki's had been the day before.

Kurogiri.

Her longtime comrad spread out his portal-like quirk so wide that Kaiya knew he was bringing in a massive group. Her limbs felt numb and part of her knew she should shout to warn the others, but she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth.

She sensed him before he came through the void.

Tomura's long fingers reached through first as he pulled his face into view behind his treasured, grey decrepit hand. Her brother dragged his feet into the USJ as an army of thugs joined him on every side and Kurogiri finally materialized behind him.

The beast at her brother's side wasn't one she recognized, but she knew the signs of a nomu when she saw one.

"Huddle up and don't move!" Aizawa-Sensei shouted, throwing out a protective hand toward his class. "Thirteen! Take care of the students!"

The students all idled in confusion and Kirishima spoke up as he tried to look out over the small army below them. "What the heck's that? More battle robots like during the entrance exam?"

Their sensei retrieved his goggles from beneath his carbon fiber scarf. "Don't move - those are villains."

Kaiya could almost hear Tomura and Kurogiri talking amongst themselves and her mouth dried. Her brother was angry, even with the hands covering his face and body she could plainly see his upset. They knew she was here. They knew her entire class was here.

They knew All Might was supposed to be here.

She had failed.

She had already failed her father so undoubtedly that he'd sent her brother to come do the job for her. Her senses opened up to feel out for All Might, but he was nowhere to be found. Her brother had come looking for a fight and all he'd found was her class.

Everyone threw out their questions and fears as Aizawa-Sensei leapt from the stairs for the horde of villains and Kaiya simply stood in place. The others started to rush around as she stared at the scene below.

What was she supposed to do now?

Midoriya ran into her, pushing her away from the edge of the stairs and she noticed the others had already ran for cover. Her body moved along with him as he pulled her by the arm to join them.

But their retreat was stalled as Kurogiri appeared before the exit as a massive cloud of the darkest purple fog.

She felt his eyes on her and her throat filled with an emotion she could not name as the presence of all the others weighed on her chest.

"I won't allow an escape," Kurogiri's voice boomed above them. "Greetings. We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today we've come here to U.A. High School - this bastion of heroism to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."

The students gasped and braced themselves. Midoriya held Kaiya's arm tighter, though neither were completely aware as they watched Kurogiri.

"We were under the impression that All Might would be here today. It seems his schedule was revised?" Kurogiri paused and Kaiya felt a cold sweat bead on the back of her neck. "Well, no matter. My role remains unchanged."

Kurogiri spread his presence toward them and shouts broke out as Bakugo and Kirishima charged.

Only for their attacks to hit a large, black wall.

Kaiya hadn't been allowed to know much of the nomu experiments of her father's, but she did know that the Dr. had been engineering them before she was even born. Her father had never explained exactly what dark science went into their creation, but her first and only experience with a prototype two years ago told her enough.

That was the night she'd learned the searing pain of her regeneration quirk.

The nomu slapped the boys away and the students scurried back. Bakugo landed and launched himself toward the bird-like beast once more as Todoroki stepped forward, encasing the nomu in ice in time to halt its progression for Bakugo to fire off another, larger explosion into its face.

The smoke cleared and the nomu still stood, unphased as Todoroki's ice shattered away.

Midoriya released her and moved to approach the fight, but Kaiya knew he would only make himself unusable and gain no ground against the creature. The nomu could snap all of her classmates like twigs if given the chance.

The battle between Aizawa and the army of thugs continued behind them, the blows heard even at this distance.

She knew she should stand her ground and let the scene play out. She knew that she could take no part of this on either side lest she be found out or worse - abandoned - but she couldn't stop thinking of Ida's enthusiasm over being class representative and Bakugo's discipline during their morning training and Midoriya's undying urge to help despite the consequences to himself.

Todoroki's words at lunch rang through her head as she'd asked why he wouldn't use his fire quirk.

The nomu broke its still stance and charged toward Bakugo and Todoroki who stood before the others and Kaiya moved.

She raced through Ojiro and Momo to come up between Bakugo and Todoroki and jumped into the nomu only feet away. It wrapped its arms around her, but she slipped through, propelling herself up by its shoulders flying past its beak and over. She spun around to its back and grabbed its head with both hands before igniting it in blue flame.

A massive hand, black as tar reached for her and flung her over its shoulder, but she held on to its wrist and whipped herself back toward its legs. She channeled the screaming wind she'd yet to show her class and thrust it along with her legs to stab at one of its ankles. The nomu barely bent, let alone tripped, but it was enough for her to leap up and try to scorch its brain once more.

She'd learned the hard way that the nomu shared her ability to regenerate.

But the nomu remained virtually untouched. It swung an arm and locked her against its chest before she could dodge. A cry left her lips and she knew if she wanted to stand any chance against her father's creation she would have to use quirks the class weren't supposed to know about. The nomu clasped its other hand around her neck and held her away from his body. Her blood hammered through her head as she hung limp for a moment before she thrashed and summoned blue fire once more.

An explosion went off too close to her head and she heard the shrieking of Todoroki's ice again as the nomu froze behind her. She peeled her eyes open toward the class and saw Kirishima charging again with Midoriya hot on his heels.

No.

She wanted to tell them that she was fine.

That they needed to save themselves.

"Interesting," Kurogiri's echoing voice spoke up from where he watched the scene. "It seems… students though you may be, you are the best of the best."

Kurogiri's darkness spread over her head and she looked out at all her classmates who watched her with panic in their eyes as her consciousness began to fail her. She clawed at the hand around her throat as they all slipped away into her old comrad's void.

…

Kaiya regained consciousness to a thumb and three fingers pressed into her cheeks.

"Well, well," Tomura's rasping voice said above her. "The princess wakes."

She spit on him, but most of it only fell back onto her chin. He threw her face to the side and her head rolled on the ground of the dias at the epicenter of the USJ. Sounds of battle rolled in on all sides in small spurts aside from the rhythmic explosions behind her.

"What is this, Tomura?" she growled, trying to move. Her ribs cried out in pain and a sharp burning sang through her foot, but she pulled herself up nevertheless.

He bobbed his head back and forth whimsically. "Since you couldn't be bothered to answer your dear brother's calls, I thought I should pop in to check on you."

Kaiya's mouth watered and when she tasted the metallic tang of blood, she spat again to the floor. "If I spent all my time on the phone, I wouldn't be able to make much progress now, would I?"

"Seems to me that you've made no progress at all," he countered. Tomura paced around his pet nomu as Kurogiri stood by. When she didn't answer he huffed. "I assumed as much. That's why I thought I would step in and show father which of his children he can truly count on."

"Why do you insist on always getting in my way?" Kaiya said, her voice mimicking his mocking tone.

This time Tomura laughed. "Foolish girl. If anyone has been in the way, it's you. Father and I will grow this league into the greatness it once was. You are nothing more than a lackey - a plaything."

"Your jealousy becomes you, brother," she responded as he circled her. She pressed her broken foot down on the solid ground, refusing to show her brother that she was injured. If he spotted the weakness, he would jump on it.

Tomura reached a hand up to scratch his neck and Kaiya braced herself.

"I think it might be time for your part in our plan to come to an end," he hissed behind the severed hand that covered his face. "Don't worry. I'll tell father you died at the hands of All Might."

She sneered, but then her brother spoke again.

"Nomu."

The bird-like creature responded, snapping into action before she could take a breath and appeared before her faster than her eyes could see.

It had only been toying with her before - she could see that now - and for the first time she wondered if maybe her brother had been right about her all these years. No matter how many quirks she collected with father, no matter how much power she might possess…

She was still weak.

The nomu picked her up around the torso with both hands, crushing her already injured ribs. She pressed her lips together firmly, trying desperately not to give into the pain. She tried to think of a quirk to help her escape instead, but a scream ripped through her anyway. Small cracks sounded beneath her and her vision turned red before she watched the nomu's head cover in layers of thin cloth like bandages.

Aizawa-Sensei.

He'd come for her.

The nomu tightened its grip and she bit down through her yelp of pain, tasting blood once more. The heat of her broken bones poured through her in heaving waves. She saw the shadow of a figure tighten its hold on the nomu and yank it away as the blood rushing to her head became too much.

She fell from the beast's hands and hit the hard floor of the dias.

And opened her eyes to a bright room.

A monitor beeped beside her in the quiet and she squinted up at the ceiling as dread crept through her chest. Her panic sped the mechanical noise that kept track of her heart rate and she heard shuffling in the room.

"Move, move," an elderly female voice said and Kaiya turned her head across the fluffy pillow of her infirmary bed.

A woman approached her in a medical jacket and behind her stood Kaiya's entire class.

"Hi there, dear," the woman said as she pressed a button on Kaiya's monitor. "I'm Recovery Girl. I wish we could have met under better circumstances."

"Wh-what happened?" Kaiya croaked, the sound so much like an injured puppy that it made her grimace.

Kirishima stood at the foot of her bed, the others all crowded close together throughout the cramped space. "All Might came and stopped the League of Villains."

Todoroki was by her side next to Recovery Girl. "You went unconscious when I got there," he said, his voice soft and somber.

"Todoroki, Bakugo, and Kirishima protected you until I could carry you away. That Shigaraki guy sure had it out for you. Ribbet," Asui said from further back toward the door.

She blocked out the thought of her brother and what her class might have witnessed as she searched the room. Sure enough, they'd all come. Even Bakugo leaned against the back wall, watching her with barely concealed annoyance. Everyone was there except…

"Where is Midoriya?"

"He was injured too," Uraraka answered.

Ida straightened beside her. "You both put up an incredible fight, though I missed most of the incident as I raced to bring All Might and the other teachers to us for aide."

"Yeah," Kirishima agreed. "The way you stood up to the nomu was insane. Even All Might had a hard time with him at first."

She did not feel the same pride they spoke with. She had been incredibly outmatched without her deadlier quirks and her mortal stamina would never be enough to stay on par with a nomu. And then there was the fact that Tomura hadn't come at father's command. She'd long known that her and her brother were tense, even in the best of times, but for him to try and kill her? She wouldn't be here - wouldn't have ever opened her eyes again if it weren't for Aizawa.

An unfamiliar fear lanced through her, seizing her throat. "Sensei?" she croaked.

"He's being treated, too," Ida confirmed, consoling her.

"And so is Thirteen and All Might," Uraraka added next to him.

Kaiya leaned her head back on her pillow and looked up, counting the tiles through her heavy breaths. She moved her foot with minimal discomfort and she checked on her arms to find them fully healed. Her ribs still ached, the residual burning less a burden and more an exhausting inconvenience.

"Alright," Recovery Girl cut in. "Time to go. She needs to rest."

Kaiya listened to the scuffling as they all headed for the door, but couldn't watch them go.

"I hope you feel better soon!" Uraraka called out and Kaiya remembered the look on the girl's face when she'd told her she wouldn't sit with her at lunch.

"Thank you," she whispered and let her the weight of her healing close her tired eyes as she enjoyed the silence.

After a beat, she heard a harsh, hushed voice.

"Yes, yes," Recovery Girl said at a normal volume. "I'd normally call a teacher, but I'll have you notified when she's ready to leave so you can walk her to her dorm."

Kaiya heard a ticking scoff and there was a pause before the door to her infirmary room finally shut and she was left all alone.

* * *

**j: a question from Yeahleash in the reviews!**

**j: does All for One know that you can sense the power levels of others' quirks?**

**kaiya: yes. it was the first part of my quirk that manifested when i was a little girl. my father used it to find our candidates for the collectings and had me lead us to them. **

**j: but there's more involved in that process than just your quirk isn't there?**

**kaiya: i thought you said i couldn't talk about spoilers?**

**j: SO TRUE. **


	5. Chapter 5

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Kaiya - Age Thirteen

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"_Mine works on command, but yours will happen naturally," her father told her from his place against the dark wall of the empty warehouse._

_Great, she thought, a quirk she couldn't turn off._

_Kurogiri stepped through the metal doors at her back and she turned to face them both. _

"_Today, Kurogiri will test you."_

_Kaiya clenched her jaw at the insinuation and resisted the urge to touch her braid for comfort. _

"_Sincerest apologies, Kaiya dear, but I've things to do," Kurogiri's dark voice bloomed in the cold winter air. _

_He attacked without warning and Kaiya leapt away. To her advantage, she could sense his quirk as it materialized. She ducked beneath another portal, sliding toward one of the many cement pillars holding the building together. Kurogiri didn't bother moving an inch from his place in the doorway as the mist of his quirk built around her until she was trapped._

_She decided to use his quirk for her own good and jumped, kicking off the pillar into his void faster than she'd ever moved, with her screaming wind throwing her forward. Hope was all she had that she'd make it through. _

_Kaiya grinned as she broke free of the haze, arms extended to catch herself and propel herself into a vault to continue her escape._

_But a sharp, sudden pain shot up her leg in a vicious crawl. _

_She crashed onto the concrete floor at her father's feet. The skin of her face burned and she tasted blood, but they were nothing compared to the agony that crippled her left leg. She rolled onto her back in time to see her leg fall beside the pillar she'd jumped from. Pain roared through her blood as a shock numbed through her skull. _

_Her right leg bent as she rose to sit. Her left ended just below the knee, the thick white band of her tendon hanging freely before it shrunk up into her open leg. Blood poured onto the gray ground and she reached for her severed limb with shaking fingers. _

"_W-what did you do?" she pleaded so softly she couldn't hear herself. _

_Her arms started to convulse and she felt her ribs quaking in her chest as she looked over to where her foot had landed on the other side of Kurogiri's portal. She felt light, as empty as the void she'd just passed through. _

"_It'll grow back," her father said simply before looking over to Kurogiri. "Put her back."_

"_Yes, sir."_

_The darkest purple cloud she'd ever seen materialized over Kaiya's head and she screamed as it swallowed her, setting her down gently in the windowless bedroom she knew much too well. Blood quickly seeped onto her sheets and she finally felt the tears racing down her cheeks._

_Frantically, she touched the open wound, feeling her consciousness swaying as she watched her trembling hands touch the stump as if it were not her own. _

_Then a muscle stretched out past what was left of her skin below her knee. _

_She cried out, sinking her fingers into her thin sheets before rolling to find her pillow and hold it to her chest. She squeezed it, burying her face in the sewn pocket of cotton and screamed until her world finally turned black._

_When she woke, her sheets were a dark red and her pillow was damp._

_But both of her legs were sprawled out beneath her. _

* * *

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Chapter Five - Recovery Day

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Kaiya woke in darkness to the sound of the infirmary door opening. Moonlight shone in through the single window to her left, illuminating the sharp features of the person she'd least expected.

Unless he was here to kill her, that is.

"Good," Bakugo said brusquely. "You're up. Let's go."

Kaiya stretched out beneath the clinical sheets. Most of her body felt in top condition, though her ribs were still sore on both sides. She rolled her ankles idly, finding they felt a little weak. "What are you talking about?"

The prickly blonde crossed his arms and she noticed he was wearing the same clothes as the previous morning when they trained in Gamma Gym. "It's time for our slot."

"_Our_ slot?" she challenged, unimpressed.

His lip twitched. "Just come on. We're barely going to have enough time for you to change."

"You really want me to get out of a hospital bed to fight with you?" she asked, before considering. "Wait, that actually sounds just like you."

Bakugo made a low sound of annoyance as she slid her feet to the cold tile. Her hero costume had been removed at some point, as it was assumably covered in blood, leaving her in only a thin white gown. When she pulled her weight up to stand her ankles faltered and Bakugo's hand shot out to her. She grabbed it reflexively, steadying herself before snatching her hand back.

He turned toward the door without a word and stepped out, not bothering to see if others roamed the school halls. She followed along with her bare feet as he led her through the maze of U.A. until they were on the path back to their dorms.

She rushed through the door when he'd thrown it open too wide and made her way to the elevator for the girls' side of newly constructed building.

None of the others were awake to witness Bakugo stepping on the elevator with her, though when they finally reached her room he made himself comfortable by leaning against the adjacent wall.

Kaiya slipped off the paper thin dress and changed into her typical training outfit. This wasn't the first time she'd been dragged out of bed after an injury to train, so she simply took the time to brush her hair and teeth and rejoined a waiting Bakugo in the hall.

He kicked off the wall when she emerged and they walked back to the elevators in an eerily comfortable silence. She braided her hair during their descent and she could feel Bakugo's eyes on her back until the doors opened again.

They walked at a slower pace than she'd expected from Bakugo's urgency in waking her, both cutting through the grass without agreeing to it. When they stepped into the light of Gamma Gym, Ectoplasm was there waiting.

"Ito," the teacher said. "I didn't expect you to be back on your feet so soon."

Kaiya kept her face smooth and impassive. "Well, here I am."

"Fair enough," he told her before looking between Kaiya and Bakugo. "Do either of you want clones today?"

"Not yet," Bakugo answered as Kaiya shook her head.

She started off to her side and Bakugo parted from her to his own. She watched him with barely concealed annoyance before she asked him quietly, "Why did you do this?"

Bakugo didn't stop at first before he finally looked over his shoulder. "The top can't stay down when they fall," his rough voice said before he walked away again. "Don't get in over your head today and make your body more useless than it already is. I'm going to fight you at your best one day and I will destroy you," he called out once he'd reached his side.

Her irritation soothed at his words and she slid into quick stretches before transitioning into slower, deeper ones.

Part of her wanted to try to contact her father, though she knew it would do more harm than good. There was a restlessness inside her after yesterday. She found herself replaying Tomura's words in her head over and over again. Had he really felt this strongly about her all this time? What information was he relaying to their father?

For some reason, she started to doubt her place in their world as much as she'd doubted her place in U.A.

She needed to regain her focus for the true task at hand. Though she avoided the thought, there was little doubt whether or not she would be welcomed home without the Symbol of Peace's head.

Kaiya lowered herself to the floor and laid her legs straight out before her. She placed her hands in between them and pressed. Her ribs shot out with pain and she released the pressure, breathing through the subsiding waves of her injury. When it settled, she pressed her hands to the floor again and didn't hesitate as she leaned forward, picking her torso up off of the ground. A cold sweat formed on her brow much sooner than it should have as she strained to tune out the pain in her middle. Instead, she focused on the sounds of Bakugo's explosions from the other side of the room and the feeling of his intense quirk pounding against her own. She pulled herself slowly, desperately clinging to the smooth motion of the base of her spine rising up over her head behind her. She forced herself to straighten, commanding her arms not to shake and her middle to hold true to what she knew she was capable of.

_The top can't stay down when they fall._

Her legs rose straight above her as she inverted, breathing through the pulse of her complaining ribs. She dropped her legs on both sides, stretching them as well as her control, before letting her left foot fall gently in front of her. The right followed soon after and the rush of blood in her head faded away as she came to stand again.

Tiny white lights buzzed through her vision and she blinked them away.

Bakugo had summoned two clones today and she watched him setting them up for a progression of calculated moves and she was pleased to see him stressing his mind over his brute strength.

She walked away from him over to the real Ectoplasm and asked for a single clone.

The mock Ectoplasm followed her back to the center of her half of the gym and she set a distance between them before lowering into a stance. She took a deep breath, allowing the stab through her chest to ground her before taking off toward the clone.

And just as she channeled her screaming wind, an explosion went off before her. Smoke and the smell of cinder hit her as she halted and whipped her head to Bakugo before checking that the clone had been fully destroyed. His own clones still chased him as he volleyed himself back over to his side.

"IDIOT," he screamed, keeping up his fight.

She wanted to charge over onto his side of the gym and insert herself into his training and see how he liked it. But she knew her body wouldn't allow her. She swiped at the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead once more and huffed. Just one simple body weight movement had her exhausted already and she hung her head for a heartbeat before resolving to a less confrontational mode of fitness.

By the end of the hour, she'd felt every muscle in her body through her flowing stretches that bent her into strengthening positions and even slipped in a few uses for her wind. She'd never trained the quirk she was passing off as air manipulation much before, but she felt with practice she could turn the power that had so far only been enhancing her movements and sweeping at opponents to potentially fly. In bursts, she could already throw herself about however true flight was still quite a bit of practice and hours of exposure to the quirk away.

"Your hour is complete, young heroes," Ectoplasm announced, rising from his seat near the door.

Kaiya was already finished, but Bakugo set off one last explosion that rocked the gym as he decimated his latest clones and filled the massive room with smoke. She rolled her eyes and made for the exit, her gym mate's plume dissipating the closer she came to fresh air.

The sun was cracking over the horizon as she stepped onto the cement path that led back toward the student housing. The fresh spring morning called out to her stowed water quirk and she mentally soothed it back into slumber within her. Ahead, the sidewalks were almost entirely clear of students and she found herself scoping out the grounds.

"Classes were all cancelled," Bakugo said over his shoulder, answering her unspoken question. "We can't leave campus today either."

"Ah," she breathed, watching the sunrise.

They didn't speak again on their walk back to their class' dorm and she eventually started to see a few others wandering the winding pathways despite the early hour. Bakugo didn't cut through the grass this time, instead choosing to follow her which made her increasingly curious as time went on. She opened the door to their building unceremoniously, throwing it back as he'd done and she held back the grimace at the sting in her side.

She froze when Ojiro, Ida, and Asui's heads all jerked toward her entrance.

Ida stood immediately and beelined toward her as Bakugo continued on, shouldering her as he passed.

"How inconsiderate, Bakugo!" Ida exclaimed, glaring at the blonde. "Kaiya, are you doing well? I didn't know you were released from the infirmary."

Asui and Ojiro came up beside him and she felt smothered against the doorway.

"You're sweating," Asui pointed out unabashedly.

Ojiro's face crumpled with concern. "Do you need to sit down? We were just finishing up breakfast."

"Of course you are welcome to join us," Ida offered.

Asui raised a finger to her cheek. "Why were you out with Bakugo?"

"Oi!" the mentioned boy shouted from the communal kitchen. "Are you coming or not?"

Kaiya shoved her confusion aside to take the bait, stepping around her three classmates to follow Bakugo's voice across the common room. He pressed a button on a small appliance as she rounded the corner. "What do you want?"

"Wow, the one time I help someone and they're already complaining," he groaned, shifting over to the stove as he gathered ingredients from the cabinet above. "See if I ever do that again."

Kaiya frowned. "What's that smell?" she asked, his previous appliance hissing with a small stream of steam wafting upward.

Bakugo turned with his hands full. "What? Coffee?"

"Is that what it smells like? It's amazing," she said ruefully, sniffing. She stepped over to the clear glass pitcher and watched it fill.

"You're an idiot," he muttered and turned back to his cooking.

She bent and rested her arms on the counter in front of the coffee maker, crossing them and resting her chin on top. "Can I have some?"

"Whatever," he mumbled, focusing on his breakfast. He had a pot of water boiling and a skillet pulled out.

She heard Ida, Asui, and Ojiro settle back onto the couch as Bakugo's creation started to smell good too, but it was a weak comparison to the full pitcher before her. When only drops fell from its hidden spout, she turned to the blonde beside her.

He stirred whatever he'd poured into the now-boiling water. "Do I look like your server?" he said without looking away.

Kaiya's forehead creased as she eyed all the surrounding cabinets. She, admittedly, had gone to the cafeteria for each of her meals so far and found herself useless in a kitchen. She reached for the closest door and heard an exasperated sigh.

"That one," Bakugo said, pointing to one behind her with his spoon.

She retrieved a mug quickly and set it down before hesitantly pouring herself a too-full cup, spilling the coffee from both the overflow and the spout of the pitcher. Frantically, she searched for a towel.

"Oh my god," Bakugo groaned, handing her the towel he'd kept with him through his cooking.

Kaiya resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him and grumbled out a quiet thanks before cleaning up after herself. She did, at least, have enough sense to know that the coffee would be hot. Waiting for as long as she could manage while blowing slowly over the top, she finally gave in and sipped, barely taking the cup off the countertop.

"I like it," she announced.

Bakugo didn't stop cooking. "Good for you."

She turned from the kitchen with a small smile, gripping her coffee with both hands as she made her way back up to her room. Her muscles were feeling recharged by her gentle training day, despite her ribs that still ached when she moved a certain way. Once inside, she set the mug down on her desk before digging through her bag for her notes and books.

She made a list of the assignments due tomorrow and what she wanted to spend extra time going over while she sipped her dark coffee and decided to shower after she'd finished the comforting drink. But somewhere between english and mathematics, she'd emptied the cup and pressed forward into her endlessly stressful studies with a newfound vigor.

Her confidence in her completed assignments was shaky at best, but she'd finished them hours later. Blocking out the fact that these were only the lessons during the first week of school, she reached for her history book.

She didn't really need to try quite so hard, but with some combination of the incident yesterday and the coffee power she managed to not overthink what exactly was going to happen between herself and her family. Tomura would be home now, speaking with father.

What would her brother tell her father about her?

So for now, she simply cracked open her textbook, and prepared to study until she felt her stomach growl. Sighing, she checked the time on her phone before grabbing her toiletry bag and a change of clothes. The community showers were an unwelcome inconvenience, but after a few days she was starting to feel more normal about sharing something she felt should be in her own bathroom. She would shower and then go see if Lunch Rush was cooking today.

If he wasn't…

She would have to venture into the kitchen.

When she stepped out of the elevator, she heard voices.

"Kaiya, hey," Jiro called out from the kitchen with Momo by her side.

Kaiya gripped her belongings tighter as she looked over to see Uraraka, Mina, and Asui poke their heads out into the common area and smile at her.

"Kaiya!" Uraraka exclaimed. "What are you up to?"

Kaiya gestured with her head toward the hall that led to the two bathrooms on the bottom floor. "Gonna shower and go get some food," she answered impishly.

"You should eat with us," Asui said with a ribbet.

Momo's eyes were bright. "We're cooking a meal my mom sent me the recipe for. You're more than welcome to join."

The idea of group socializing of her own free will seemed unpleasant, but Kaiya could smell the food they'd already started to prepare and her stomach growled. "Uh, okay."

"Go ahead and shower and we'll still be here!" Uraraka assured her and Kaiya took that as a release.

She padded down the hall quickly, the soft smell of her vanilla soap heightening her anticipation for the nice steaming water ahead of her - not to mention the alone time.

As if he'd heard her thoughts, Kirishima appeared from the boys' bath with a towel draped over his - thankfully - clothed shoulders.

"Oh hey, Kaiya," he said, surprised. "How are you feeling? I didn't know you were back from the infirmary."

She looked at the boy who had blushed at her the first day of school. "Yeah, I'm fine now," she told him, eyeing the door that held her shower beyond.

"Good," he said heavily. "I'm glad. When Bakugo and I made it to you guys that Shigaraki guy was coming for you," his voice drifted. "Bakugo cut him off and I… I was scared to pick you up. There was so much blood and I tried to take you away, but I couldn't get you all the way to the others. That bird-brain was everywhere."

Kaiya swallowed.

The memory of Aizawa-Sensei's binding cloth wrapping around the nomu's face and yanking him away flashed through her mind. There had been so many nights in her youth that she'd let herself break, weeping into the quiet of her room at night, hoping that someone would come to save her. Yet no one ever had. No one had ever assisted her the way that her class had yesterday.

To hear that Bakugo kept her brother at bay, that Kirishima had tried to protect her from all of their fighting…

Aizawa had come for her when she felt herself slipping away.

"Thank you," she told Kirishima simply.

His eyes filled with emotion and she turned away. Her shower wasn't as great as she'd wanted it to be.

She emerged fully dressed and ran her things back up to her room before settling herself to rejoin the girls downstairs. Her wet hair was tied into a long braid as she approached the murmuring girls surrounding the large dining table. She stood back awkwardly, realizing she should have greeted them or something, but it had already been too long and now she was being weird.

"Kaiya!" Uraraka jumped. "You scared me," the girl said with a hand over her heart.

The others looked up from the dishes they were setting and Momo offered a small smile. "Join us, please."

Asui was already in a seat and Uraraka settled across from her. Jiro and Momo took spots on the other end, leaving the middle seats on either side for Mina and Kaiya.

Kaiya started off to the kitchen to get a plate when Mina held one up. "I grabbed you a plate already!"

"Er, thanks," she said to the girl's bright smile.

"We were just talking about Mina's lack of studying," Jiro told the table as she dipped food onto her plate.

Mina whipped her head to the earphone jack girl. "Hey, you're not having any easier of a time than I am!"

"I've been studying all morning. My assignments for tomorrow are already done," Asui said before slurping some noodles.

Uraraka paled. "Really? I haven't even started. I kinda slept in pretty late…"

"I'm sure Deku would tutor you," Mina teased and Jiro choked out a giggle beside her.

Uraraka blushed feverishly. "What are you talking about?! I mean, he is really smart but I don't want to ask him something like that…" she rambled off into mumbles that reminded Kaiya of Midoriya himself and she looked at Uraraka quizzocally.

"Ah," Momo interjected. "So Uraraka has a crush on Midoriya?"

"No!" Uraraka shouted at the same time that Jiro, Mina, and Asui nodded vigorously across the table. "You guys! Stop!"

"What?" Jiro questioned. "I'm sure he likes you too. You're both always blushing around each other."

Uraraka waved her hands frantically in front of her, nearly knocking her half empty cup of water to the floor.

Mina sighed. "What I would give to have Todoroki notice me."

Kaiya stared at the girl in front of her. "Todoroki? Really?" she asked, remembering the boy who sat alone in the trees at lunch.

_I don't like you._

Kaiya paled at the thought of Mina liking him.

"I know," Momo agreed. "But he's so focused on training. I haven't seen him socializing with anyone, let alone a girl."

Suddenly having lunch with Todoroki felt like a secret and Kaiya kept her mouth shut.

"What about you, Tsu?" Jiro asked. "You spend a lot of time with Ida." She widened her eyes suggestively.

"No, ribbet," Asui told them after she swallowed another bite of her lunch. "I think I like Tokoyami."

"Tokoyami?" Mina blurted.

Uraraka clasped her hands together. "That's so cute, Tsu!"

"Yeah, but I haven't spent any real time with him, so it's only a crush for now," she explained.

"Kaiya?" Uraraka probed on Kaiya's left. "Do you like anyone?"

The question was so absurd Kaiya considered leaving the meal altogether, but thoughts of yesterday and all the work they'd done preparing this food and allowing her to eat it kept her in place.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "What does a crush feel like?"

All the girls' faces dropped.

"You've never had a crush before?" Jiro asked earnestly.

"I don't think so."

Momo took a moment for serious thought. "It's when you're attracted to someone whether physically or mentally or both."

Kaiya's brow creased. All she could think of were the singing of quirks that drew out her own, beckoning for her to steal them for herself. "I guess not then," she answered finally.

"What about Bakugo?" Asui piped in. "The two of you seemed close this morning."

"Bakugo?!" Mina and Uraraka shouted together and all the girls hushed, looking over their shoulders to make sure no one else was in the common space.

"Really?" Jiro asked. "He's…"

"Scary," Mina finished.

Kaiya didn't really understand their reaction. Sure, he wasn't as overwhelmingly nice as the rest of their class, but she'd never felt afraid of him. Thinking back to Ectoplasm's warning about maintaining the upper hand that Gamma Gym offered her, she told them, "He just walked me back to the dorms from the infirmary. I wasn't allowed to leave alone."

"Bakugo walked you home?" Uraraka said, seeking clarity.

Kaiya eyed the girls as they stared at her. "It's not a big deal."

"He made you coffee," Asui added.

Uraraka's mouth dropped open and Jiro and Momo exchanged a glance.

"He made himself coffee," Kaiya corrected the frog girl. "I just took some."

Momo pushed her plate away, finished. "Just be careful," she warned. "His temper is unbelievable and all he cares about is himself."

Kaiya doubted that after this morning.

_The top can't stay down when they fall. _

But she didn't tell any of them that. They were making a big deal out of nothing, so there was no point in arguing it any further.

"No one's asked Jiro about her crush," Kaiya launched them off into another topic as she reached for Momo's plate before collecting all the empty dishes from across the table. She accepted their thanks as she took them to the sink to wash, avoiding the complicated thoughts of the web she'd been weaving since entering UA High School.

Her life before had been simple, if not unpleasant. And though now she was starting to find a bit of pleasure in the distractions of schoolwork and a social life, navigating the ties between so many others was a skill she was not equipped with. She found the change… not completely terrible.

"Hey," Momo said as she stepped up to the sink where Kaiya had begun sifting through cabinets to put away their dried dishes. "We decided to have a girl's study night every week. What do you think?"

"Yeah," Kaiya heard herself saying as she placed the last dish in its home. "That sounds good."

Momo smiled. "Good." The older girl asked for her phone number and Kaiya realized she didn't know it. Telling her that she would give it to her in class tomorrow, Kaiya headed back upstairs to crack open her books once more.

Time passed slower in the afternoon, especially after she decided to go over the work she'd already completed and discovered countless mistakes. With a mental note to buy a larger eraser, she buckled down and tried again. She copied over every passing thought she'd written down during classes this week onto another notebook, hoping the act would help her memory before she read them again and again.

But when the sun started to set, she was going to lose it.

Her muscles twitched with their lack of use, begging her to leave her desk chair behind. She found herself wishing she could use Gamma Gym anytime she wanted. Without bothering to change out of the casual pants and oversized tee that hung off her shoulder, she shoved her chair back and left the room. She tapped her foot restlessly on the elevator ride down and frowned when she saw that it was dark outside as she stepped from the building.

Grunts of effort sounded from around the corner and Kaiya checked that her surroundings were clear before following them. The quirk told her who was training in the twilight before she ever laid eyes on them. She set a palm on the edge of the red brick as she stopped short in the finely manicured lawn of their courtyard.

Midoriya was in the grass, forcing himself through average push-ups. However, with every push his arm would web with glowing red power that faded away again as he lowered himself to the ground. Sweat fell from the wet strands of his hair as he kept his pace even and she wondered how long he'd been doing this.

It was nice to see him spending time with his newly acquired quirk, even if its power repelled her, though she had to admit that with more exposure, she became less sensitive to its force.

"Can you put that into something other than your arm?" she asked.

Midoriya jumped, collapsing into the grass. "Oh, Kaiya," he mumbled hurriedly, "you scared me."

She didn't apologize. "Does your quirk only work in your arm?" She'd only ever seen him use his right hand - or right finger - for the massive output of strength he was capable of.

"N-no," he stuttered. "I've used it in both my arms and my legs."

"No where else?"

His brow furrowed. "Where else would I use it?"

"Are you not a whole person?" she questioned as she stepped away from the edge of the dorms. "Or do you only have arms and legs?"

He reeled himself back to sit. "I've never thought about…"

"Quirks aren't limited to a single action," she went on, her voice taking on the tone of a lecturer she'd rather not remind herself of. "They can be as fluid or with as much depth as you are as a person."

Midoriya looked down at his shoes for a beat, thinking. When he looked up again his eyes were soft. "Why are you helping me?"

"I'm not," she answered quickly, before turning away toward the woods that the UA border cut through. Maybe she could get away with some quirk use over there as long as she managed not to damage anything.

Midoriya looked after her as she left.

"Thank you anyway."

.

* * *

**Author's Note: We loooove a chapter that develops character relationships! If you've read this far I just want to say thank you so much! **

**.**

**.**

**j: how do you like your coffee guys?**

**bakugo: black. how do i get out of this?**

**kaiya: there's more than one way to drink coffee?**

**bakugo: oh god you got her going again.**

**kaiya: wait, no. what are these ways?**

**bakugo: i'm done with this.**

**kaiya: ... okay but how else can you drink coffee?**


End file.
